PBA Galleries

Printed form in English and Hawaiian, filled out in ink executed at San Francisco. 35.5x43.3 cm (14x17¼").

Ship's document for signing crew members in San Francisco for a voyage to Hawaii, "not to exceed six months." The ship was the Planter, of Honolulu. The names of the recruits are given, the date signed, with their stations (i.e. jobs), wages,  etc. Signed by the master of the ship, John Cameron. Also present is a certificate signed by the Hawaiian Consul in San Francisco, D.A.. McKinley (incidentally the brother of future U.S.. President William McKinley), attesting that the seamen listed on the articles "were regularly shipped at this Port, at the rate of wages set opposite their respective names." The "Planter," which normally served the southern Kauai ports and Niihau as part of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, was, sadly, a doomed ship. Not six months after leaving the port of San Francisco, on January 27th, 1886, she was wrecked on a reef at Niihau. It is not known if any of the poor souls who are listed in this document were serving at the time of the wreck, or if they were, they survived the mishap.