GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR
ON our return to Honolulu there still was no word from the Naval
authorities as to appointments at Pearl Harbour. We decided to stand
by a few weeks longer in the hope that an opening would soon occur. As
our money was running low it was necessary for us to obtain temporary
jobs to insure that we would get food each day and have a place to rest
our heads at night. Richardson soon fell into the berth of sales-clerk
in a photograph shop on the main street of Honolulu, selling kodak
supplies and fixtures at twelve dollars a week. I was not so fortunate.
I scoured the town for days for something that paid a living wage.
I applied to the City Health Department, hoping to get a position
as mosquito inspector, ambling about town with a can of oil on my
back, pouring the liquid on the various duck ponds which are operated
by Chinese and Japanese and which are prolific incubators for this
tropical pest. I sought work as a checker of sugar as it is loaded on
ships in the harbour. I made application to the three newspapers in the
hope of being taken on as a reporter and I canvassed all the houses
in the wholesale district. No one would have me. However, I knew one
job I could get but I was standing it off as long as there might be
prospects of obtaining something else. But finally I had to take it.
A re-enforced concrete jail was under construction on the water front
and one afternoon, after several hours of searching in vain for work, I
sauntered around to this structure. I found the Irish foreman, assumed
an empty appearance and said, "I am hungry." The good man immediately
agreed to take me on as a labourer at $1.50 a day.
I appeared the next morning attired in suitable raiment for the work
I was about to take up and was assigned to my post. The building had
been in course of construction several months and had reached the point
where the concrete had set and the forms were ready to be dismantled.
Equipped with a pinch bar, I worked on a scaffolding with a dozen
native Hawaiians and a score of Portuguese, removing the forms from
the walls and ceilings. After several days of this fascinating pastime
I was placed on the end of a shovel mixing concrete on the roof and
propelling a wheelbarrow laden with cement. Pushing two hundred pounds
of concrete in a primitive wheelbarrow on the top of an Hawaiian jail
under the glaring and penetrating rays of the tropical sun with school
teacher's hands was no joke. Blisters the size of nickels arose on my
hands; my back became lame, my feet swollen and every muscle in my body
as tender as a baby's. To reach the apex of misfortune I ran a rusty
nail through the sole of my shoe into my foot. This was a fat load of
discomfort to carry for a meagre $1.50 a day. But I had to eat.
In the meantime a vacancy occurred at Pearl Harbour and Richardson
received an appointment. After swearing that he would support the
Constitution of the United States, the laws of the territory of Hawaii,
the Ten Commandments and what not, he was duly authorised to exercise
the duties of sub-inspector of dredging. Richardson's one per cent.
better mark in the examination put him on the dredging job three weeks
in advance of myself and during this period he earned seventy-five
dollars--a costly one per cent. for me.
After several weeks as a hod-carrier, I also received my Pearl
Harbour appointment, which had been cabled from Washington, and I at
once abandoned the concrete business and--from hard labour--joined
Richardson in a life of leisure as a government inspector.
The United States Government was spending several million dollars in
developing Pearl Harbour, a beautiful land-locked bay on the island
of Oahu about ten miles from Honolulu. Under the supervision of the
United States Navy Department a dry dock was being constructed, a naval
station was to be built with shops, barracks, parade grounds, marine
hospital, etc. In order to make this natural harbour accessible the
government was having the channel dredged to a width of six hundred
feet and to a depth of thirty-five feet. The work was under contract
to the Hawaiian Dredging Company, who employed, at this time, about
six hundred men. The task was being performed by six dredgers, each of
a different type,--a clam-shell, a dipper, a converted schooner, an
electric hydraulic, a steam hydraulic and a drag-bucket. These machines
were superintended by experienced men from America, but the general run
of their crews was recruited from the riff-raff of the earth. Drunken
sailors, bums and tramps, good-for-nothing Europeans, worthless hulks,
swearing Britishers and high sea wanderers blew into the camp and were
taken on--to remain but a few days--when new recruits would come along
or men would be enlisted from the patrons of the waterfront saloons of
Honolulu. As deck hands, launch men and any sort of unskilled labour
they were set to work, only to be replaced in a few days by a bunch
equally as worthless and degraded. It was common occurrence for the
whole outfit on a dredge to quit at midnight and be replaced in a few
hours by a crowd obtained from the drunken ranks of the low-down dives
of Honolulu. They would arrive at the dredge, laden to the shoulders
with booze, howling drunk, some of them fighting mad, and before they
were all landed from the launch it was an unusual thing if two or three
had not fallen overboard and had to be fished out. However, beneath
the uncouth externals of many of these men was a heart as big as a
fortune, an unselfishness one would hardly surmise and a disposition
which it would be difficult to duplicate.
The headquarters for the camp were located in Watertown, a little
settlement at the mouth of the harbour, whose inhabitants, numbering
about five hundred souls, were made up of Hawaiians, Japanese,
Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans. This small camp
contained one store and fifty or more houses where the employés of the
dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, labourers and native fishermen
lived.
According to its regular custom, the Government employed inspectors to
see that the work was done properly. Call them what you will--spies,
loafers or parasites--each name characterises some phase of the job.
Such appellations are no reflection on the personnel of the force,
however. There were fifteen of them and it would be hard to find a
more interesting set of men grouped together in one spot. The several
epithets by which they have just been designated are not due to any
failing of theirs, but to the nature of the job, whose chief demands on
the inspectors were to look intelligent, maintain the dignity of the
Government, and draw pay. There were among these fifteen inspectors
an ex-dentist of Honolulu, one of the finest fellows on this earth;
an ex-lawyer, a brilliant and sterling man; an ex-doctor, whose Irish
wit was of the rare and clever variety; an ex-professor of Whittier
College, California; an ex-sailor and several nondescripts. Besides
upholding the dignity of the Government each inspector was supposed
to have a thorough knowledge of the channel, its width and depth, to
inspect the dredging, to supervise the dumping of the dredged material
and to submit a daily report to the head inspector.
[Illustration: _Upper_: THE _Gaylord_, THE ONLY DRAG-BUCKET DREDGER IN
EXISTENCE]
[Illustration: _Lower_: A RESTAURANT WHERE NOTHING BUT "GRUB" IS SERVED]
This was the lay-out with which Richardson and I had decided to cast
our lot for several months. With our wages averaging one hundred and
ten dollars a month, we figured that in a short time we would have a
fair amount of coin laid aside which would enable us to go on to the
Orient and bring us safely to another point where we could search for
work.
When off duty the inspectors lived at Watertown in quarters provided
for them by the Hawaiian Dredging Company and ate their meals at a
restaurant conducted by Chinese. While on duty they slept and ate on
the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in
the channel. On each dredge there was set aside a room for inspectors'
quarters. These compartments on most of the dredges were furnished
with two iron bunks for beds, several dynamite boxes for chairs and a
greasy deck of cards for amusement. The occupant was never lonesome nor
idle, for when he had nothing to do, which was most of the time, he
could spend the weary hours reducing the number of rapidly multiplying
bed-bugs. These dredges were literally alive with this human pest
and as soon as we would reduce the flock to the point of comfort a
new bunch of recruits would be ushered in with the arrival of a new
crew of men from the waterfront of Honolulu. The mess rooms with crude
tables covered with oilcloth, with tin ware and lack of service, could
exhibit at meal time the most unappetising display of food ever placed
before any man. Stewed tripe--weeks old--lamb stew, clam-chowder,
bread apparently made of cement, butter with a stench so strong that
it outclassed the odours of the other provisions, fermented tomato
catsup and hot cakes with the consistency of horse pads, greeted the
unwashed eaters three times a day. The eaters themselves were a curious
exhibition of mankind. The men employed on the dredges slept and ate
their meals aboard and when they gathered in the mess room, as well as
at all other times, the language and stories that wafted across the
board were fit to hypnotise the devil.
One morning as Richardson, somewhat late, was seating himself for
breakfast the Chinese waiter, approaching the table, inquired
automatically and in an interrogative tone,
"Mush?"
"Yes," said Richardson.
"No mush," was the Chink's reply.
This is a sample of the mental capacity of the Oriental servants on the
dredges. How could individuals with such brains cook anything fit for
a white man to eat? These Chinese cooks and flunkeys were a greasy,
unsanitary set and always wore aprons which looked more like those of a
blacksmith than those of a kitchen artisan.
The inspectors' time was so arranged that every second day we had
thirty-two hours off and these we used to devote to various forms
of recreation. In addition to renovating an old sail boat which we
resurrected out of the mud flats of the harbour of Honolulu, we went
swimming off the pontoon lines of the dredges, hunted on the Government
reserve or attended native luaus on the beach. The most interesting
diversion was shark fishing. We always had a line out from each dredge
in quest of both the hammer-head and man-eating sharks. On one occasion
one of the crew observing that one of our lines was being jerked
uttered a cry of "shark!" and in a moment we were all on deck pulling
in the rope to land our catch. On the end of the line was a ten-foot
man-eating shark and as we got the monster alongside the dredge one
of the Hawaiians, an expert swimmer, dived off the deck and proceeded
to tie a rope around the body of the fish to enable us to hoist him
aboard. The shark struggled and whipped about with his tail to such an
extent that the native was unable to manipulate the rope with one hand,
his other being employed in an effort to restrain the movements of the
big creature. After several vain attempts to tie on the rope, the
Hawaiian held the tail of the shark between his teeth and thus, with
the use of both hands, placed the line around the shark's belly and he
was raised on deck. We at once set to and stripped the fish of all its
flesh and in the course of a few hours the captain of the dredge was
the proud possessor of a walking stick made from the circular bones of
the spinal column of the shark. Such a cane is a novelty and a beauty.
My roommate was an inspector who had originally come from the back
country of the State of Oregon. Each time as he returned from Honolulu
I observed, as Smith--for that was his name--removed his coat, a
revolver strapped over his left shoulder.
"What is the pistol for?" I asked him one day.
"I need it in my business," was Smith's reply.
"What business are you in?" I enquired, a little curious.
"I am travelling with another man's wife," said Smith.
"That's rather dangerous business, isn't it?" I ventured, refraining
from offering any advice to a man older than myself and one whom I knew
but slightly.
"The man is on my trail and I am ready for him," said Smith. I
dismissed the incident as the boasting prank of a youth. Some months
afterwards, however, the city of Honolulu was awakened from its daily
routine by a shooting scrape which took place on one of the main
streets at nine o'clock in the morning. Smith's talk was not mere
youthful boasting. His assailant fired five shots at him, one catching
him in the hip, and Smith replied with a generous bestowal of lead,
firing several shots, one of which lodged in his opponent's lung. The
first report was that Smith had killed his man. This was not true,
however, and the two were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Sentiment in Honolulu ebbed high against Smith and, when he recovered
sufficiently to leave the hospital, it was impossible for him to obtain
the three thousand dollars' bail for the charge of "assault with a
deadly weapon with the intent to commit murder" which was lodged
against him. He spent one night in jail and his fellow inspectors
finally came to his rescue. Although not approving of his actions,
we felt that now was the time to help the man when he was down and
especially as Smith appeared very regretful. Richardson and I put up
two hundred and fifty dollars each of the bail. The case dragged on for
months and was not settled until after our departure from the Islands.
Sometime later we learned that Smith was fined one thousand dollars and
dismissed from the service of the Government. Such was my roommate. He
may have been foolish, but no one could accuse him of being a coward.
He was a likeable fellow and had a world of good qualities.
After a couple of months on the job as inspectors Richardson and I
had a few dollars in our pockets and, feeling rather reckless one day,
decided to purchase some sugar stock in the hope of making a stake and
thus being enabled to continue the trip in comparative luxury. We each
bought ten shares of the Oahu Sugar Company's stock at thirty dollars
a share. In order to do this we had to borrow one hundred and fifty
dollars each from a Honolulu bank. While we were building castles in
the air concerning the big pile we were going to make, the slump in
the market, usual when amateurs begin meddling with stocks, occurred
and our shares dropped six points. With the drop of our stocks came a
drop in our hopes and we could picture our earnings of the past months
vanishing as we stood helplessly by. We concluded that if there was
no other way out of our financial difficulties we could at least stay
on the job and earn what we had lost. In addition to our bail money
for Smith and our loss on our high finance I had, either out of the
goodness of my heart or because I was an easy mark, loaned out over two
hundred dollars to acquaintances of mine who had put up tales of hard
luck. With our finances in this state our trip for the present began
to look somewhat dubious. However, everything turned out all right and
we climbed out of our financial tangle with profit. The last week of
our stay in Hawaii we were both released from Smith's bail, our sugar
stocks had gradually risen to two points higher than the figure at
which we purchased them and I collected every cent of my loans.
We had now been at Pearl Harbour several months and were anxious to be
moving, so we started a vigorous campaign to make a getaway. Honolulu
is simply a port of call and crews are not made up there and for this
reason it is a poor place in which to be stranded, for it is next to
impossible to sign on as a sailor on any ship. When off duty at Pearl
Harbour we went to Honolulu and canvassed all the likely looking
vessels for passage to either Australia or the Orient. The reception
we received at the hands of the captains and stewards varied from the
painfully courteous to the hardest of treatment. The skipper of a
United States Army transport took us into his cabin, told us stories,
gave us a drink but, true to his duty, refused to give us a lift across
the Pacific. The steward of a Pacific Mail liner, whom we unfortunately
caught ten minutes before the boat sailed--a busy time for a commissary
chief,--disposed of us in short order. Seeing a man who filled the
description given us, I hailed a greasy looking fellow as he was
hurriedly ascending the gangway and asked him,
"Are you the steward?"
"Yep; what do you want?"
"May I have a minute of your time?"
"No, sir, only a half a minute." Our case looked hopeless.
"What are the chances for two of us to get a job?"
"None. I have had enough of fellows like you. Get off the gangway
before I have you kicked off," shouted the chief cook as he beckoned
to several deck hands to enforce his threat. There being nothing else
to do, the two of us withdrew amid the laughter of the people on the
pier who witnessed the dialogue. We retired to the opposite side of the
wharf where we sat down, smoked a cigarette and talked the matter over.
We felt pretty much subdued.
We were novices at the game of procuring maritime jobs and the old sea
dogs with whom we had to deal knew it, but we concluded that the only
way to get experience was to persevere. We started the trip as tramps
and now, for the first time, we realised that we actually were tramps;
but we always clung to the idea that we were of the refined variety.
Our next attempt towards obtaining passage was on a British tramp
coal steamer plying between Honolulu and Australia. I was especially
eager to go to Sydney because a friend of mine, touring the southern
continent, had procured a job for me with a draying company in that
city. The British tramp was to be painted on her return to Australia
and as men were needed Richardson and I were signed on and our duties
outlined. They consisted of knocking off the old paint on the side of
the ship for twenty-one days. The skipper informed us that the boat
was to get under way the following afternoon and that we ought to
report for duty in the morning. We were on hand the next day but only
to be disappointed, for there was no ship to be found. We learned that
it had received orders to sail at once for Seattle and had left at
midnight.
We were now left in the lurch. We had tendered our resignations to the
Secretary of the Navy and had severed our connections with the Pearl
Harbour operations. To diminish our chances for passage to the Orient
there was nothing going our way upon which there was the remotest
chance of getting a job. Although we felt rather opulent after several
months' work as inspectors we were reluctant to look up the rates to
Yokohama on the regular liners--but decided to do so. We found that on
the following day the _Asia_, an intermediate steamer of the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company, was due from San Francisco _en route_ to Japan
and that the fare was seventy-five dollars. This was a huge sum to
part with at one blow, but when compared with the regular first class
fare of one hundred and fifty dollars on the larger boats looked like
a saving. We also figured that by the time we had spent several months
floundering around Australia, in spite of the money saved getting
there, we should arrive in Manila several hundred dollars out. With
these considerations we decided to take the _Asia_ to Yokohama.
We had spent a number of weeks in getting our baggage together and had
reduced it to a scientific minimum. We agreed only to take a suit case
and a small hand bag each. In addition to these Richardson was to bring
his camera. Our baggage consisted of the following wearing apparel
and fixtures: two suits of clothes each (one on our backs), one pair
of heavy shoes, a cap, six soft shirts, two flannel shirts, a pair of
overalls, a dozen socks, six sets of underwear, a dozen handkerchiefs,
a rain coat, a few toilet articles, diaries and some stationery. The
trip was not to be a dress affair and all hard-boiled shirts, linen
collars and evening clothes were dismissed from the start. Even with
our wardrobes reduced to this half civilised minimum, it required
systematic packing and almost superhuman strength to close our suit
cases.
We closed up our affairs in Honolulu, put our money into American
Bankers' Travelers' checks, ate a few farewell meals, drank a few
final toasts and were in readiness to depart. The _Asia_ was scheduled
to leave at five in the afternoon. I was on the pier a few minutes
before the appointed time, but there was no sign of Richardson. Five
minutes to five--and Richardson had not arrived; four, three, two
and one minute to five--and Richardson was nowhere to be found. Five
o'clock--and no Richardson. The lines of the ship were being loosened
from the pier. I was on board; after having made arrangements with some
navy men to have the government launch bring Richardson out to the
_Asia_ while she was turning in the stream or to tell him to meet me
in Yokohama. At two minutes after five o'clock--just as the ship was
getting under way--Richardson came running down the wharf armed with
a suit case, a small leather bag, a camera, a rain coat, a hair brush
extending from one pocket, a bottle of tooth powder from another and
a half a dozen small bundles hanging from any place where they could
stick. The gangplank was lowered and he came aboard, while a handful of
friends placed several Hawaiian leis about his perspiring neck.
The Royal Hawaiian Band played _Aloha Oe_, the ship got under way and
we began the second leg of our trip with seven hundred dollars each in
our pockets.