Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-08-29
Written for the Transcript.
Experience of ssSinbad'' in the Navy.
TCOntinued from last week,


the highest nom commissioned officer
in the ship, was sent home and | was
appointed in his place. This neces>
STATED change Of uniform, SO sold
nv wardrobe and Invested the proceeds
on white shirts, brass buttons and white
collars. I am particular in stating
this, as it is the forerunner Of another
scrope. We were laying in the port of
Callao, Peru, one evening when there
appeared feet ofSpanish ships which
anchored outside tho harbor, and at
once gave notice that they intended to
lombard the town, for what reason |
do not know, nor does it matter.
They gave three days notice. The
night before the day on which the bom~
bardment was to take place, the officer
on watch observed lighter floating
past the ship; he hailed it, but receiv~
ing no answer sent out boat, found
it was lighter of coal, towed it along
side and made it fast. In the morning
early the Captain ordered the coal pat
in the buukers for the ships use, being
short, intending to pay for it when he
found the owner. The fires were lit
so as to have steam up 10 case of an
emergency. After the fires had been
lit some time one Of the 6remep found
it necessary to break large lump of
coal IN order to put it in the furnace.
He struck it with his maui; it broke
in pieces, and in the centre he discover
ed nice little shell, about eight inches
in diameter, loaded with powder;
rather an unpleasant thing to cook IN.
der the boilers Of two hundred and
fifty horse power engine.
This fireman remembered having
put just such looking lump of
coal into the furnace a few minutes
before. He opened the furnace door,
looked in and sure enough there vas
shell. The coal had crumbled away
from it, and 1t lay there ready to make
demonstration on it's own hook at any
minute. This fireman was fortunately
endowed with considerable presence Of
mind. He reached into the furnace
with long handled shovel. picked up
the shell, ran on deck with it and
pitched it overheard, thus saving the
lives Of many. The coal was examined
at once and a great many Of these
shells found. They were fixed up by
first wrapping the shell in tow, then
rolling it in pitch, then in coal dust,
and repeating this process until it
resembled lump of coal. You may
be sure we got rid Of that coal as soon
as possible, and were never able to fud
the oecaer. 1t seemed that the Span~
Yards were short of coal and the Peru
VANS knew it, so they sent out this
lighter Of coal and ti9ius, hoping that
it would be picked up by the Spanlards,
but it fell into the wrong hands.
All the defence which the Peru
vans had was four heavy Whitworth
guns, mounted in turret shaped forts
the construction Of which had been
superintended by an American.
The Spanish fleet, consisting Of two
ironclads, two frigates and two small
gunboats, steamed in about 10 clock
and at once began the attack. About
the second shell fired from one Of the
large guns on shore struck the water
not a hundred feet from our stern and
exploded. We got out Of that in a
hurry, and took a position farther away.
1t did not take long to clean out the
Spaniards, with the exception of one
ironclad, which stood it all day.
Tie next morning they had disap>
peared. The Peruvians had lost their
Secretary of War by an explosion of
some powder, near which he Was stand
ing, also some FIVE or six nren who
were taking up a torpedo which had
| been set in the harbor. They had got
the thing out and. were carrying it
along the deck Of one Of their ships
wien they let it drop Their remains
were picked up in a basket. Some
time after this we were going down
the coast and passed large frigate
going up. She did not hoist her colors,
neither did we. After we had passed
her six or seven miles We observed that
she had changed her course and was
following us as fast as possible. This
did not excite US much until she
arrived opposite US aud fired gun.
which was signal to heave to. This
we did not propose to do, and kept on
our course. The frigate now fred a
shot across our bows without hosting
her eolors. This was more than on,
Captain could stand he sprung the
rattle which called all hands to quarters
and IN three minutes the ship was stop
ped, ports lowered, guns run out and
flag. The frigate .hois1ed the Spanish
flag and sazuted. The salute was re,
turned, and both ships went on their
way. The Spaniard had evidently
taken US for Peruvian, and wanted
to overhaul us, but if he had fred at
us once more: he would have received
I, J,o, c,ox,, TT Co. .1.x -,1 7,