Nuhou, Volume I, Number 15, 15 April 1873 — Loss of a Lanai Boat. [ARTICLE]

Loss of a Lanai Boat.

Last week, with a load of sheep and $150 cash; but that is nothing. The real loss was two kanakas. This makes the third upset in that dangerous Molokai Channel, within a very few years, by which six valuable lives have been lost. Our Shepherd was almost persuaded to stay over a week on Lanai, and come by this lost boat; but the cry of the Nuhou to be ready to meet the onslaughts of the organ of all Saints, was all that saved him. Let us respect the organ for saving so valuable a life; and one so necessary to keep it whipped up to a decent endeavor to be amusing. But let us talk of something better, of the brave Lanai boys; the boldest mariners of these isles who risk their lives so freely in crazy old whaleboats in a dangerous sea. Why should these valuable lives be so hazarded, and cast away? Are they so plenty, and of such little worth? A true nation will any day risk its treasure and its blood for the sake of one of its people in peril. The brave boatman of Lanai and Molokai are in peril every day in order to feed Lahaina with mutton, beef and poi. And can they not be helped? Cannot a steamer make a high-way between these islands? Come, Ministers, you are busy in carrying lepers on the steamer to exile, and why not employ it too in saving healthy and brave men from a watery grave? These are fuller particulars just received about the lost boat. It was a whaleboat decked over, schooner rigged, and belonged to Molokai. She had six natives on board, one a woman; and had 44 sheep procured on Lanai to sell at Lahaina. On arrival at this town on Wednesday afternoon, the 8th inst., they found the market overstocked, and resolved to take the sheep to Molokai. They met a gale in the channel, and being top heavy with sheep tied on deck, capsized about midway between Maui and Molokai. As the men could not right the boat, she being held down by her anchor, and her deck load that was lashed to the deck, they stripped to swim for the shore, and the woman was tied by her holoku to an oar. They all made for land, but one, a blind kahuna or priest, who said he would stick to the bottotn of the wreck, and be drifted ashore, His eomrades tried to pull him away, and said they would help him, but he held on. After swimming a good ways, the owner of the boat turned back to the wreck, expressing his belief that the old priest knew the fate of the boat, and he would be saved with it. HIs tow sons were with him, but they kept on for the shore; and after a swim of about six miles, and a terrible buffeting in a wild sea, during a cold and howling night, these poor exhausted creatures, three men and a woman, crawled up on the beach at Makaiwa, in the district of Kanapali [Kaanapali], Island of Maui. The woman'a gown was torn into strips to make malos or breech clouts for all the company, and in this condition they joined their friends on Maui. As the boat has not been since heard of, she no doubt was broken up and went down with the two who clung to her; but this much is known. On Thursday night, April 10, Apaki [Apiki?], of Lanai was running from Maunalei to Lahaina with a load of hogs, and had also several children on board. As he scudded along through a white sea, and the light of the moon was obscured by driving clouds, he heard a cry to windward, distinct cries of mortal agony, "Auwe ka make!" Aloha {illegible}! He could see nothing in the night.

His heart was rent to go to the rescue of these perishing souls; but he was weak handed to row, his boat could not beat against such a sea, and then thinking of the litile children he had with him, he had to drive on, and as he sped away, he still heard the agonizing wail; --help, alas, we die! These no doubt were the hapless wretches who had then been clinging to the wrecked boat, about thirty-six hours. They who cross that wild Molokai sea, and who battle against the storm that tears out of Maalaea Bay, in a whale boat take their lives in their hands. We have had to do it many a time, and therefore we feel deeply the fate of those who have been less fortunate than ourselves. The same letter which brought the above particulars, also brings news of the death of two natives on Lanai at the same time. Lord, have mercy on Thy people of these islands, who perish by the plague, by diseases of all kinds, and by the perils of the deep.