The native Hawaiian thought the end of the world had come and some of the most superstitious of them ran hither and thither, shrieking in terror.
The explosion shook the Custom House and broke some of the glass in the windows.
"Ha! What does that mean?" demanded one of the Chinese officers, who had come ashore.
"It means that your ship is blown up and that you are our prisoner!" answered one of the Americans, and pointed a pistol squarely at his head.
A wild scene followed, but the foreigners were outnumbered and soon all eight of those who had come ashore were made prisoners, and cast into one of the dungeons of the old fort. The sailors who had been left in charge of the small boats at the dock were either killed by the shock of the explosions, or shot down by sharpshooters stationed at a distance.
The annihilation of many of the foreign warships was complete, and when the wreckage and the smoke cleared away, nothing remained in the harbor but several sunken hulks, the other ships having lost no time in leaving. The lives of all on board the sunken ships were also destroyed.
Oscar came ashore at ten o'clock and the Americans nearly hugged the young captain to death.
"You have saved us!" said one of the number. "That was the greatest move I ever witnessed in my life!"
"Now we must watch for the return of the other warships," said the young captain.
But he first wanted some more torpedoes. Fortunately these were close at hand, for Honolulu was an American base of supplies for warships sailing between San Francisco and the Philippines.