On board, our routine became more established. After the consignment of
case oil was put over, we found the work less trying and were better
able to meet it as we accustomed ourselves to the new labor, although
the Republican-Royalist feud continued to the end of our stay. In the
main hold, directly below the hatch, we carried a locomotive boiler.
Getting this overboard called for some seamanship on the part of the
mate. He strengthened the main yard support by extra tackles, and
hoisted the fish fall up to the cargo pendant, which in turn was backed
by several parts of wire rope. The yard purchase was replaced by a
fourfold tackle rove off with new gear. Once ready, we sent the boiler
over the side in good style, setting it squarely on a flat car.
While this special gear for getting over the heavy freight was being
rigged, the remaining running gear of the braces was unrove, coiled and
marked for stowing while old stuff was sent up to take its place, as
all such untarred rope deteriorates rapidly when exposed to the dust
of the port for any length of time. Following the discharge of the
boiler we roused out a large number of cases of heavy machinery, all
to be assembled as a complete locomotive. The _Fuller_ was stowed with
a very mixed cargo, her manifest containing every kind of agricultural
and household implement imaginable. Castle and Cook, a large importing
house in the Islands, got a lot of our cargo and as we would unload a
consignment of stuff for them they would run an advertisement in the
daily papers--
CASTLE AND COOK, Large assortment of the best fruit jars with patent
screw tops just received from the States by Ship _A. J. Fuller._
Had we been wrecked on a desert island, our freight would have set us
up as a very respectable lot of Robinson Crusoes, for we brought the
most general of general cargoes.
After a week in port, my mosquito mottled face having subsided to
normal, I presented a letter of introduction to Mr. William H.
McInerny, at his place of business on Fort Street. Mr. McInerny, his
mother, sister and brothers, were most kind to me, and I enjoyed
their hospitality with an appreciation made extra keen by the life of
the ship. Clean table linen and all of the ordinary necessities of
civilized existence seemed extra good. On the other hand I had sense
enough to appreciate the life aboard ship. This was never dull, and was
soon destined to become particularly strenuous.
Mr. McInerny called for me frequently of a Sunday and took me driving
behind a pair of fast horses. His first appearance on the ship aroused
the gravest sort of suspicions in the mind of the mate. He eyed me
critically when I went ashore in my best Sunday suit, pressed the night
before by a Chinaman on Nuuanu Street. As we drove off, so Peter told
me afterward, the mate shook his head as much as to say, "Another young
fellow gone wrong."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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