We were told that the captain's and officers' quarters were certified
and not counted when the capacity of the ship was figured, so the ship
seemed bigger than ever to us. Next we invaded the chart room, saw the
device that tells the whereabouts of a coming typhoon, listened to the
telephonic arrangement that proclaims the proximity of the buoy bells,
watched the little indicator that makes a red line depicting the exact
course of the ship on a circular chart, tried out the fire alarm system
that instantly rings a bell if a high temperature is registered any
place on the ship, from the bridal suite to the darkest corner of the
hold. We set the fog whistle to blow at regular intervals. We were told
that the searchlight could enable the pilot to discover objects about
five miles out, and by the time the gyro compass and numerous other
devices had been explained to us, we were ready to believe that the ship
cost seven million dollars, and that five thousand dollars was the daily
operating expense (two thousand dollars of which was spent for the one
thousand gallons of oil).
The mock trial was one of the features of the trip. Nearly everyone was
arrested, sentenced or fined. Mrs. F. Panter's and Captain Ruben
Robinson's trials were the most sensational. In spite of Carl
Westerfeld's efforts to save Captain Robinson from being convicted of
fox trotting with a certain charming widow, he was heavily sentenced.
Louis C. Brown was released upon the hearing of the eloquent pleadings
of his attorney, Louis H. Mooser. At the close of the session,
Commissioner Francis Krull imposed a fine upon himself for his merciful
tendencies as the judge.
When a crowd of us piled into the wireless room and asked the whys and
wherefores, the poor operator gave up trying to explain why the messages
were all sent at night, and settled the matter by telling us that the
atmospheric conditions were better then, and that the ship was equipped
with two systems, the spark and the arc, but that the arc was given the
preference. The Empire State kept its apparatus tuned to the one at
Sloat Boulevard, so if any of those at home missed us, just all they had
to do was to drive past that station any night, and, perhaps, at that
very moment, a message was being received from us.
When we saw land, the women immediately planned a meeting to discuss
what to wear and do when we arrived in Honolulu on the following day. A.
I. Esberg gave an address the evening before on the meaning of our
Commercial Relationship tour and the good-will that he believed San
Francisco would establish by this mission. Afterward we danced, then
followed a Chinese supper. Yes, we were eating again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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