THE PACIFIC MAIL SERVICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1416, 10 September 1872, Page 2

THE PACIFIC MAIL SERVICE.

The following, from the San Francisco Commercial Chronicle of July 17, is peculiarly American, and must be taken., with' allowances: — - ■ By another of those inscrutable dispensations of Providence, the steamer Mohongo has again been permittted to enter the harbour of San Francisco. Truly, God is good, and his mercy endureth for ever ! The insane old kettle came steaming and puffing into the bay during the forenoon. Her passengers were at once landed, and with devout hearts and souls filled with thanksgiving wended their way to the hotels. One of them, John "Ward Girdleston, of London, went to the Occidental Hotel. He carefully washed his face, put on a clean paper collar, took out his prayer book, and in the presence of his frienda read with much itnprcssiveness the psalm of thanksgiving for Divine preservation from the dangers of the deep. He then sent for a Chronicle reporter. The reporter obeyed the summons promptly. He found Mr Girdleston sitting in his private parlour and was warmly welcomed. " Ah ! I understand your paper is anxious to let the people know the truth with referenced the steamer Mohongo." The reporter said it was tho peculiar province of the. Chronicle tole^.the public know the truth about everything. • " Ah ! Well, I've got something to say, you know, about that blasted ship, and if you like I'll tell it you." - The reporter said he was all ears. Mr Girdleston then went on and related his experience. He took from Honolulu, paying first-class farej and expecting first-class accommodations. He did not wish to say anything unfavourable of any officer or man on board, but. certainly had nothing favourable to say of the Mohongo or her accommodations. He and eleven other passengers were crowded into a little smoking room, irhere there was only six feet of standing room, and where the bunks were closely placed together three deep. Whenever it rained, tho cabin leaked, and nearly every article of clothing was saturated. The fare was riot'sueh as should be tabled in tho cabin of any first-class steamer. Had he known the inconveniences that he would have to uudorgo, he would not have taken passage in the Mohongo at all. He was pleased to say that he and as many of his friends as he could influence were done with the Mohongo for ever. Some of tho ladies wore especially loud in their condemnation of the line. One of them, ari'amiable married lady, said that the steward and assistants frequently quarrelled among themselves, using profane and obscene language whore the ladies on board could not avoid overhearing them. Her stateroom leaked badly, so that whenever it rained nearly everything was wet. . Tho stewards and many of the second-class passerigers-'slept upon sofas and on tho floor of tho lower cabin, because there was no room elsewhere. Ladies were compelled to • pass through this cabin, and often had to pass over the prostrate bodies of the sleepers. The waiters were often drunk and disagreeably familiar. Oh one occasion a diseased cow was killed and a part of its flesh prepared .for table. He was positive it was diseased and wholly unfit for food. Although fruit was very cheap in Honolulu, but little was purchased for the Mohongo, a stunted pineapple or two being a rare and appreciated luxury. Fowls were served but twice a week, and those, too, of toughness sufficient to destroy the appetite of a seven-duy-starved coyote. He would not again have his wife suffer tho hardships of such a voyage for many hundred times the Co3t of the passage. The reporter then called at the Grand Hotel, and saw another gentleman who, with his family, came orer in the. Mohongo. They confirmed all that Mr Girdleston said, and added much more to prove the utter worthlessness of the Mohongo as a passenger vessel. Some of the passengers are connected with English Journals. They say that they intend to publish statements of the management of the Webb Line in the journals which, they represent ; but moro particularly will they condemn the policy which keeps a worthless, unsuitable old tub on a line which is more or less of national importance. Thomas Rowett, jun., of London, who is connected with the London Daily News, was one of the passengers by the Mohongo. He has furnished us with the following statement of his trip from Auckland, which would go to show that the same policy is apparent in the management of the entire Webb line. Mr Rowett sailed from Sydney on the 9th of May in an English steamer — the City of Melbourne. That vessel broke down when five days out, and had to put back to Sydney. So she missed tho connection at Auckland, and the mails were delayed one month. At Auckland the passengers were delayed 18 days, waiting for the Nebraska. Mr Rowett tells the st«ry in his own words a3 follows : — We started from Auckland in the Nebraska oa the 11th of June, early — one day behind time, and notwithstanding the boasted power of the ship (dinned incessantly into our ears by the loquacious' purser),, it took as nineteen days to get to Honolulu, a distance of 3750 miles only ! But speed one might have dispensed with, had we been fairly fed and decently attended. We will only say of the food that had it been onefourth up to what one would expect from the printed t>ill of fare, it would have been fit for tho gods. Speaking to the letter, we have never seen such miserable faro offered to first-class cabin passengers in any ship, whether steamer or sailing vessel, and we have been pretty well over the eutiro world, in all classes and nationalities of steamers. The attendance was simply disgusting. If one asked for a teaspoon, it was produced from the trowsers pocket of a' dirty, slovenly looking steward. With'dUtf first feeing the particular servant attached to our table we could get

nothing — everything was "All gone, sir. s la fact, so much had they got into the habit of saying "All gone, sir, that one of us, om asking this particular fellow to pass the milkcrackers, was answered, c - All gone, eir !" One more instance and then we leave the Nebraska. A passenger found his plate wet and asked the steward to change it. The fellow coolly removed it, rubbed it on his hip till it was dry, and set it before the passenger. Arrived at Honolulu, we found that old " Satan's death-trap," the" Mohongo, waiting to take us on to San Francisco. She was licensed to carry 160 passengers; we ' were 170 ; and yet, although we sent a note of protest, signed by most of the passengers, to the agent — although we invoked the aid of both the American and British Consuls against this absurd : treatment— the ultimatum was; ," If you don't like to go on, you can stop here." Of course there were many on board could not stop, and, with one or two exceptions, we all came on. Her cabins were filled chock-a-block mostly three in a cabin ; and the surplus — twelve forlorn firat-class passengers — • were packed — we write packed, and we mean packed— into the : smoking room, a deck .house 12 feet by 10 ; two wash-hand basins for the lot, and each man ; 'had to. empty his own slops after washinrgj /himself/ over the side of the ship in all weather. .The others below were even worse off ; they had berths certainly, but their berths leaked like a basket, — so much so that we suppose that was the excuse for not washing decks in the morning. At any rate, the writer's berth and a dozen more were never once dry tbe whole voyage, and the occupants had to sleep in their. clothes for thirteen nights. Still, we were first-class passengers. . As to the faro on board the Hohongo,.it .was much on a par with that bf the NebraskliT— no better, certainly. But the stewards ! no pen could describo them. Two instances : Dirtyfaced, fiannel-shirtcd, collarless ruffian pokes passenger on tho shoulder, "Soup for you, mister?" Points- at another with a finger black as the ace of spades, "Bi,' you sir! soup ? " Punches a gentlemanly-looking youth of seventeen or eighteen in the ribs, " Soup for you, sonnie ? " One of us complained of a tumbler of iced water he had given to him as not being pure. He put his dirty crooked finger into it, stirred it and said, " That's derned mean ico, mister ; gives in all of a sudden ; its the meanest ice I ever saw." Heavens ! what a finger ! Was it any meaner after his stir? But the crowning joke was a steerage passenger got two pills from the doctor, and was charged twenty -five cents for them. A second-class passenger got a t»aspoonful of laudanum and chloroform in lieu of cblorodyno (which was not in the medicine chest), and had to pay half a dollar. Cabin passenger had a dose of opening medicine, and this morning had his bill sent him, the sum total being one dollar and a half, and there wa3 yet another cabin passenger who had a gargle, and we are afraid to say how many dollars his bill came to. The surgeon on being asked for an explanation Baid that these were little fees ho was allowed to charge — riot on the ship's account but for himself, as his salary was so shamefully small. ' But if we were bad, the secondclass steerage passengers were infinitely worse. Men and women — huddled not exactly together, but next thing to it — a fine Irish pig having the entire run of tho house, at aU times, meal hours included, and close in the vicinity the cattle and horned beasts have their lair — all in full view of each other. Ventilation! Uot a serap — one small trapdoor, and that a borrowed air-hole from the upper deck. What they suffered none but themselves know ; let them write it themselves. The Idaho will sail to-day for Honolulu instead of the Mohongo, and as the latter vessel will probably remain in port a few days, those who have a taste for curiosities in the way of naval architecture will have an opportunity of gratifying their passion. She has not yet been engaged by either Woodward or the City gardens. ' .