THE GASOLINE SCHOONER HAS SUNK.

Vague news has been received in Boston from Sydney [Kikane] simply explaining that the schooner Hiram Bingham was smashed and sunk in the deep along with the death of its captain, the Rev. A. C. Walkup with the ship. As for where the ship was smashed and sunk and the reason for it was not fully explained. This here below was published in the newspaper the San Francisco Call of the 27th of August [p. 13]:

“The missionary schooner Hiram Bingham, word of whose loss was received at Boston in a cablegram from Sydney, was built at Anderson’s shipyard near Hunters point and sailed from here November 10, 1908, on its maiden voyage. The message conveying the news of the loss of the vessel also told of the death of Captain Alfred C. Walkup, the mariner-missionary who commanded the gospel ship.

“Captain Walkup superintended the construction of the vessel and when he sailed from here took with him his son and daughter. The boy and girl, who were born in the Gilbert Islands, came home by way of Australia and are now in this country attending college.

“No details have been learned of the loss of the vessel, which was last reported March 2r5 at Ocean Island [Banaba].

“The Hiram Bingham was built by the American board of foreign missions for work among the Gilbert islanders and cost $7,000. The vessel was 63 feet long and was equipped with a 45 horsepower gasoline engine.”

In fall of the past year, the ship docked in Honolulu on its way to the islands of Kilibati. Its captain was welcomed with great care by the missionaries here, and before it set sail for the islands of the South, a prayer assembly was held at the pier of the Alameda.

That schooner the Hiram Bingham was the second schooner by that name built for the Mission in the Southern seas; it was built to take the place of the first vessel that rotted because it was put to use for so long. [The next two lines are set in the wrong order] It was named the Hiram Bingham in honor of Rev. Hiram Bingham the pioneer missionary teacher who lived for a long time in the islands of Kiribati.

When it stopped here, also aboard were copies of the Bible which was translated into the Kiribati language by Rev. Hiram, and that was the ballast used to sail here.

(Kuokoa, 9/10/1909, p. 7)