Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1890 — CAPTURE OF A SLAVER. [ARTICLE]

CAPTURE OF A SLAVER.

A Phi'a'fclphian'i ThHi ng Description of an Exoiti ■ g Naval C / ptnre. iLL-JjSL-.r. p - -—. k y Philadelphia Pre**., ‘♦Away there, first cutter, away!” preceded by the shrill whistle of the boatswain’s male, was the order that made a lively scene on the deck of the United States steamer Crusader thirtyyears ago We had a suspicious-looking craft hove to under our guns which Bad wisely taken the hint from the shot fired across her bow, showing that we wished to communicate with her. In 1859 an earnest effort was made by our Government to suppress the African slave trade with Cuba. Four war steamers were fitted out for this purpose, two being stationed on the north coast of Cuba and the other on the south. -At this time the slave trade was lively and remunerative. It was unlawful in Cuba, but that did not seem to be much of a detriment, Greedy, unprincipled men in our no them ports of Boston and New York did their full share of this piratical work, dealing? in human flesh anil blood. Our Government, up to this time, had never used steamers as a means to suppress this iniquitous traffic. The British Government had about thirty war steamers on the coast of Africa looking after slavers, and we generally had two or three sailing vessels on the same station and duty. Here was a new departure for us. It was a wellknown /act that with all their care and dilligence on the coast of Africa many slaves got through the blockade. We were set to watch these more cunning and lucky rascals at the Westward end of their voyage. As Cuba is about 800 miles long, it gave our Jour steamers too much to do, yet we met with reasonable success. We were engaged in this enterprise about eighteen months, all told, captured six vessels, with about 1500 negroes. The Crusader, under the command of John N. Maffit, captured three of the six. The prizes were sent to Key West, our nearest American port, and the vessels, officers, crews and negroes were turned over to the United States civil authorities for trial. The negroes were there clothed and well taken care of by our Government authorities, and were finally put into the care of the American Colonization Society, and sent out to Liberia. By some method our prisoner escaped hanging, which was the lawful penalty for this crime. The prisoners would all deny their American citizenship, and, as a matter of fact, perhaps but few were Americans. The punishment in the way of pecuniary damages was the loss of the vessel, which w?.s always confiscated, and the anticipated profits of ntucetssful venture.

THE BOGOTA. The incident in the capture of the Bogota, with which this arlicle deals, was rather peculiar. Under the old war cry of 1812, “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” we as Americans were very much hampered in our efforts to suppress the slave trade. We refused to give any nation the privilege of boarding a vessel flying the American flag, except by a special concession for jtfcfe coast of Africa. TtaHEffißassre not permitted to forcibly board any vessel unless she flew our flag.’ If a naval officer did it, it was at the risk of the loss of his commission, as it was a direct disobedience of orders. Our orders were: “Catch slavers, V but if we forcibly boarded a vessel flying a foreign flag, and If. by chance, she wasaot it meant dismissal and some international trouble. Our nation was very sensitive on this point, as it was an old ‘•w§r chip,” which we unvitWdy insisted on carrying on our shoulders. On this occasion our captain, Yankeelike, won his laurels by a cunning trick. He would change the appearance of the vessel by altering her rigs ging, and boldly fly the flag of other nations—French, English or American ,—to suit the occasion. STRATEGY* I can not decide upon the ethics of »the case, but; this sudden denationalization of the ship and all hands was an odd sensation. In order to disguise our appearance, a free use of white, black or yellaw paint was made, soinetnne.-> while at sou and other times at anchor under the lee of one of the Jnrmmerable, uninhabited coral islands which dot the north coast of Cuba. Long before wo neared our suspicious craft, by a powerful glass we discovered she flew French colors; so we hoisted the English flag at our peak and the jack forward, and looked like a respectable English cruiser. As other nations were not so particular on this point of sea etiquette in boarding vessels flying other flags than their own, the Frenchman knew that we, as an English man-of-war, could board him, but as an Amer ican we could not. As the cutter was lowered and twelve stalwart sailors, fully armed, manned the oars, our captain publicly handed Lieut. Duncan a few golden coins, saying: “Mr. Duncan, I wish you would boapd that Frenchman and give him my compliments, and soo if you can buy a few cases of good claret for me. By and by, Mr. Duncan, keep your eye on our flag and follow our motions.” Duncan’s boat pushed off, flying the British flag, and looked like an Eng lishman. THE CAPTURE. We kept the suspicious vessel under our guns and maintained our distance of about one-third of a mile. 5 As the cutter neared the Frenchman we noticed considerable excitement on their deck, and that they haulea down their flag. Duncan saw something thrown overboard, which we learned afterward was the flag, log-books and all of the ship’s papers showing her identity. Maffit* with his eye at the glass,

' *" —•— Satched carefully, and after waitingreasonable time ordered our English colors down and hoisted the stars and stripes. Duncan followed our example and hailed the stranger, asking him who he was, They, fearing to be guillotined as pirates under French law, preferred to deny all nationality. They had no flag and were nobody! Dnncan ran alongside and ordered his crew to board her. and she became our prize, as a pirate ship at sea without a nationality. . 411 slaves. ' ; When on board the odor of a slave is unmistakable, and Lieut. Duncan, instead of being as polite as he was commanded to be, neglecting' to negotiate for claret, ordered our men to open the hatches. We got the claret and some champagrie, too, among this ship’s stores, all of which was utilized by us on our trip to Key West. The 411 perfefctly nude slaves rushed wildly on deck, and although no one could understand the situation by spoken language, some of the mo&t_intelligent negroes recog* nized our flag and. knew that thei freedom was assured. Signals wer made from the slaver that she was a prize. We closed the distance between us and I was one of the party who boarded her in the noxtj boat. A prize crew was put aboard, removing her crew as prisoners, to our own ship. We quickly had a hawser over our stern and gayly headed for Key West, about 500 miles distant, with the prize in tow. Key West was our headquarters, and we had to go there for coal, water and sea stores at stated intervals SCENES ON THE SLAVER. When I reached the slaver our prisoners had not ceased to curse their luck in a sweet mixture of French, Spanish and English. In less than eight hours, had they been unmolested, they expected to secure about $400,000 a 9 the remuneration for their cargo, The wild excitement among the slaves was most ludicrous, dancing, singing and shouting in the most violent manner. One unfortunate aiid overexcited full-grown man seeing a bright copper kettle on the galley, that looked to him like a helmet, seized it hurriely and put it on his head, not noticing about a pint of hot water in it. His shouts of joy turned to yells of pain, Order was restored by making some of the leading slaves temporarily po lice officers, and by other sterner means they were made to sottlo down, so that our crew could handle the sails. More than half the cargo were womdn and children. The men were kept in the forward part separate from them. Stowing 411 men and women in such close quarters witbcait. a stitch of clothing, without anything in the shape of beds or bedding, in a vessel of about 350 tons burden;* may give you some idea of the horrors of a forty-four days’ transatlantic trip on an African slaver. However, but shven out of this lot shipped in Africa had died, and the remainder appeared in good health. They were liberally fed in groups of about a dozen, each person having a rudely carved wooden spoon with which they dipped their food from an ordinary wooden bucket. The food consisted of sea biscuit, boiled beans or rice mixed with a little fat pork. They were always kept on a short allowance of drinking water. All were sent on deck in batches and washed down with a stream of sea water from the ship’s Hose, soap and towels being considered superfluous. A LITTLE SLAVE’S GILT RUTTON In the excitement one little girl about thirteen years of age, with laughing eye and pleasing expression, caught me by one of the gilt buttons of my coat and asked me for it as plainly as though I understood her language I cut it loose and strung it by the eye qpon a narrow piece of red- tape, and pitifully threw it around he" neck. Immediately she became the center of envious female eyes as the most fully dressed of any-in the dusky throng. About a month after this cat ture. as we were again in Key West, 1 went to the barracoons, where our people were kindly looking after this crowd of unwilling emigrants; as I walked through the hospital with its crudely constructed bunks of unplaned lumber the eye of this youngster recognized me. F.maciated by disease, I did not at first recognize her, but with a pleasing smile she reached her thin hand under the bedclothes and held up the tarnished but* ton by its faded ted tape. She died a few days afterward wfth the prized trifle around her neck. Death carried off a great many of these people before they were returned to Africa, and many more died on the voyage. While the slave trade is broken up on the west coast of Africa, it is still carried on along the Uppef Nile and on the east coast John A. Grier.