CHAPTER VIII 
I DISCOVER A NEW FUR-SEAL ROOKERY 
In December, 1877, not being able to arrange for 
the building of a vessel with a guarantee for her to 
be ready for sea in time to be on the hunting-grounds 
early in the season of 1878, I decided to visit Yoko¬ 
hama to see what could be done there. I accord¬ 
ingly took passage in the old s.s. Shario , and on the 
trip down we ran into a “ snorter,” shipping heavy 
seas, smashing skylights and hatch-covers, and 
flooding the cabins and ’tween-decks where a number 
of Japanese passengers were sleeping. One of these, 
stark-naked, rushed on deck and on to the bridge 
to the captain, begging him to take the vessel in¬ 
shore and give him a chance to save his life, as he 
was sure the vessel would go down. In the deck 
cabins aft we were flooded up to the lower berths, 
but, fortunately, I had taken an upper one, and so 
kept dry. 
After being “ hove to ” for about six hours, we 
proceeded on our way again, and arrived in 
Yokohama in due course. Here I found no diffi¬ 
culty in getting what I wanted, and arranged with 
Mr. H. Cook to build me a craft to be ready for 
sea by March 15. She was to be 61 feet on the 
keel, 18 feet beam, with a 7J feet depth of hold. 
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