o away from domesticity , men find adventu 
and new friends an a tiny pacific island 
by Lois Stoops 
SKETCHES BY AL STOO 
ilunaticn. It concerned a journey and adventure that 
didn’t include me except as I could check supply lists and 
be a sounding board for enthusiasms. 
About ten days after the momentous announcement, 
our seven-year-old Michele and I watched the man in our 
lives sail out through Kewalo Basin off Honolulu on a 
blue sampan into a world where women don t exist and 
aren't even missed. 
The crew of the seventy-five foot Kotjo Marti, skipper 
Dick Shiroma and seven island boys, were tolerant and 
most kind to the two who sailed as passengers. My hus¬ 
band A1 had not had much trouble persuading A1 La- 
brecque, another nature enthusiast, to accompany him, 
and the magic word he used as persuasion was TLaysan.” 
Laysan is an island about 850 miles from Honolulu, 
one of the stepping stones that a mythical giant would 
use if he were to walk northwest from Kauai to Midway. 
It has achieved fame among; ornithologists as a bird 
plates his next exploit against his neighbors. Although h 
cannot swim or walk, he is notorious for his plundering 
> a story of a part of our Hawaiian world that few me 
For here, day after day, are carried on the molt 
tudinous activities of some of the most interesting se 
birds in the world. It was the men's privilege to wate 
and photograph creatures who had little fear of their 
and seemed only occasionally annoyed at having this iiev 
specie of long-legged gooney invade their privacy. 
The living was primitive but adequate, and days wen 
spent tramping through the sand, putting up with food 
and checking on the wildlife. 
Around the lake the colony of Laysan Albatrosse 
made their homes. This is the gooney bird which ha: 
caused so much consternation to the military on Midway 
These really handsome birds were in the process of rear 
ing myriads of unattractive adolescents with patch; 
feathers, rasping voices, and uncouth manners. 
The Frigates sat watchfully on clumps of naupaka ; 
ready to spread their huge black wings and soar into tin 
sky, the pirates of the sea. And in contrast, down near 
the protecting rock jetties sat the queenly Red-tailec 
Tropic Birds, creatures of such fearless gentleness tha 
the joy of holding their silken white bodies and stroking 
the glistening, almost translucent feathers was a didly 
reality. These birds are exotic beauties with large black 
us upon their return 
TANS'! 
^ The ill-fated Koyo Maru at berth in Kewalo Basin was 
the link with leeward islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. 
