Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-23
The Yankee Who Blew Up The Gillian
Transport Loa. =

AS sit In the shade OF the starboard
railing writing this, says the Callao cor
respondent OF the San Francisco Chvon-
icle, / see the Blanco and Huascar put
ting slowly out from under cover Of San
Lorenzo point, and know that they will
steam up to within respectable distance
of the shore guns, open fire, and after
shot or two retire to their old anchorage.
There, already, q white puff leaves the
Huascar's side, and by the time this sem
tence is finished the boom of the report
will have reached my ears. The Chilians
have the best ordnance, and, which Is
of much more consequence, have Amer
leans to handle it. Nor is the other side
without its recruits from soldiers Of for
tune hailing from the United States.
The last exploit by one Of these has Gre
ated considerable stir, and has already
been referred to as the disaster TO the
Loa. 1t occurred the day before we ar
rived here, but every one Is full OF the
affair, and these are some of the facts,
all of which may not have reached you
by telegraph: On the oath Of last month
the Gillian transport Loa brought four
hundred and six Peruvian soldiers
somehow or other the officers do not
turn up again-to Callao, and after land
ing them took her place among the block
aders. The day before yesterday after
noon the Loa, while patrolling the coast
between San Lorenzo and Ancon, saw q
boat beating about the Hormigas de
Terra. The crafts movements were SO
suspicious that the Loa lowered two boats
and gave chase, when the occupant took
to a small canoe he had in tow of the
large boat, and using his paddle vigor-
nnoiy occorod IN bo ebaro Tho Cki1topo
found their prize to be n launch contain
ing vegetables and garden stuff of all
descriptions-a perfect bonanza for q
vessel on the blockade. No time was
lost in towing the prize alongside the
transport, nor was any lost in transfer
ring the welcome contents to her deck. IL
took actually about ten minutes to get the
vegetables on board, and every thing
was out excepting bag of pota-
toes, which lay in the bottom Of
the boat. This they had hooked on
to and were hauling away, when IL
seemed as If the fuse of thunderbolt
had been touched. A great mass of
flame appeared to rise out of the very
sea and envelop the Loa, which at that
moment was in front of the last of the
neutral vessels ut anchor to leeward of
the bay. Immediately afterwards q
second explosion was heard, less heavy
than the first, and the doomed vessel
was covered up and completely hidden
by dense clouds of black smoke. When
the smoke cleared away those on board
the yet shaking vessels in the bay saw
the Loa immovable and apparently I'M
damaged, when suddenly she appeared
to stagger and reel, her bows rose in the
air and with great plunge she went
down, stern foremost, leaving only an
immense volume of steam hanging like
pail over her watery grave. The
water was not deep enough to totally
enguf the Loa and the tops Of her two
masts remained visible, with some of
the crew clinging TO them. That crew
had numbered one hundred and eighty,
officers and men, and though they all
went down in her some foated TO the
surface and were picked up by the English
corvette Penguin and boats from the
other neutral vessels of war TO the num-
Der of about thirty as they were strug-
Cling in the water. A CHILEAN transport,
then eight miles off, steered to the scene
of the disaster at full speed and received
the saved, nearly all of whom, however,
were wounded. 1t was dynamite under
that fatal bag of potatoes. The business
was engineered by adown-Easter named
Col. Williams, who holds rank in the
Peruvian army, and who may congratu-
late himself upon the successful achieve
ment Of as smart a numbering war trick
as is on record. 1t may also be some
satisfaction to him to read that the opin-
ion of those forming the flower Of mari
time war powers Is unanimous that Il
was cleverly done.