Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1874 — Wrecking on the Bahamas. [ARTICLE]

Wrecking on the Bahamas.

A writer in Harper's Magazine says: “ Wrecking is a branch of business for which the Bahamas have long been famous, owing ito their intricate navigation. At one time this was very lucrative, but it has been falling off of late years. Formerly everything saved from a wreck was sold at auction in Nassau; now till goods not of a perishable nature, and undamaged, are reshipped to the port of destination. Collusion between shipmasters and )the pilots was jHlso frequent; but increased vigilance on the part of the insurance companies has interfered with this nefarious business, while the numerous lighthouses recently erected by the Government with noble self-sacrifice have operated in the same direction. The uncertainties attending .money-making in this precarious way leave their effect on the character of the people, as is» the case when the element of chance enters largely into business; the prizes in the lottery are few, but are occasionally so large as to excite undue expectations, and thus unfit many for any pursuit more steady but less exciting. For months they will cruise about, watering and hoping, and barely kept alive on a scant supply of sugar-cane and conches; then they fall in with a wreck, and make enough from it perhaps to keep them going another year. It is not a heaithy oT ~dcsiTable state—of affairs. One Sunday morning a commotion arose quite unusual in the uncommonly quiet and orderly streets of Nassau. There was hurrying to and fro, and tire sound of voices shrill and rapid, caused by some sudden and extraordinary excitement. The wharves of the little port were thronged and positively black with eager negroes, and great activity was noticeable among the sloops and schooners. Some were discharging their cargoes of sponges, shells, fish, and cattle in hot haste; others were provisioning or setting up their rigging; others again were expeditiously hoisting their sails and heaving up their anchors; while the crews, black and white, sang songs in merry chorus as if under the influence of great and good tidings. What could it all mean? It meant this—another vein in the Bahama gold mimes had been struck, another lead discovered, and the miners were off to develop it, each hoping to be the lucky one to turn out the largest nugget and.retire on it for life. In other words, news had just been brought of the wreqk of a Spanish vessel on the Lavadeiros Shoal, one hundred and fifty miles away. She was none of your wretched colliers or fruiters, with a cargo valueless to wreckers, but a ship whose hold from keelson to deck beams was packed with a thousand tons of choice silks and stuffs fertile black-eyed brunettes of Havana, just enough damaged to oblige them to be sold at auction in Nassau, where all wrecked goods must be brought for adjudication. Verily, we thought, ‘it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good ;’ the misfortune which has wrung the soul and perhaps ruined the happiness of one or two in far lands has made glad the hearts of several thousand darkies, mulatto, and whites in the Bahamas.”