The National tribune., 1885-10-15

/
boats which had sailed away and sunk them.
| The destruction of the Esmeralda was memora-
bic. She was a cOryet of about 1,600 tons,
| commanded by Capt. Arthur Pratt. an English
man aud it may be said that all the naval
heroes of this war were foreigners. The Peru
| Wan and Chillano soldiers can fight. but they
cannot sail ships. Getting the Esmerada into
! close quarters, and her Captain refusing to sur
render, Admiral Grau struck her with his ram
and stove hole in her side Still Pratt re-
| fused to surrender and again Grau raInmed
! her, cutting the vessel nearly in two. AS she
struck Capt Pratt saw that his vessel (the Es-
! meralda) must go down, and, calling upon his
men to follow him, he leaped upon the deck of
| the Huascar with his sword in one hand and
! revolver in the other. But the two vessels
were discngaged so quickly, and the crew of the
Esmeralda Were so demoralized by the shock,
| that only one man, seaman, followed the in
| trepid Pratt on board the enemy The latter
rushed along the deck of the Huascar discharg-
ing his revolver into the groups of men, who
| stood paraly Zed by his audacity, and when his
pistol was empty he rushed madly upon them
| with his sword as
| Admiral Grau sprang from the pilot-house,
| and with the true spirit Of soldier cried out,
Surrender, Capt. Pratt, surrender! Yon are
| alone, and we do not want to take the life of
such hero!" But Pratt crazed with excite
| ment, attacked the gunners with his sword,
| and was shot down. As he fell his sword was
throw from his hand, and the point piercing
| the deck the weapon stood upright as if pur-
posey SO placed There it remains on the
| Huascar to-day, having never been removed.
| Admiral Grau, in his admiration for
THE BRAVERY OF HIS ENEMY,
| had a easement built around it, and since the
| vessel has been i'll the possession of the Chill
| lanos, who afterwards captured her, glass case
| has been substituted.
| Not only did Grau thus recognize the merits
| of his adversary, but he carefully gathered up
| everything he could find of the belongings OF
| the Captain and sent them to his widow in
Chill, with a noble letter, in which he said:
Capt, Pratt died victim to his own excessive
| intrepidity in defence of and for the glory of
his country. l sincerely deplOre his fate and
in expressing my sympathy wish also to declare
| my admiration for his character and courage"
! Admiral Grams enemies had an opportunity
| to write q similar letter to his widow q few
weeks afterward, for his language regarding
| Pratts death would well describe his own
| The HuaSCar was the swftest vessel on the
! coast She was not as large or powerful as
| some of the mighty ironclads of Chilli, but was
easily handled, and Grau was magnificent
| seaman. He attempted with his little vessel
to fight the whole fleet of Chill, and the battle
which ended his life and resulted in the cap
| ture of the HuaScar one of the tiercest
| known to the annals of marine warfare. The
| odds.were six to one, and the Huascar might
/ have escaped capture, but a shell was dropped
| into her turret, where Admiral Grau stand
| ing and directing her movements, and explod-
| ing blew the turret to atoms, and
NOT SHRED OF HIS FLESH
| was ever found. The explosion disabled the
steering machinery, and although the vessel
was helpless, her crew fought until all the OIL
| GERS but one Lieutenant were killed and two
| thirds of the men on board killed or wounded.
Then she surrendered, and now belongs to
| Chill.
Having secured the Huascar and killed the
only good naval commander the Peruvians
had the Chllanos at once blockaded the ports
of Peru aud invaded her territory with pow
erful army.
While the blockading squadron lay off the
port of Callao, one day, small cOasting
boat came drifting out of the harbOr. 1t
was filed with fresh vegetables, and there
appeared to be no one on board. From all the
biockading vessels boats were at once lowered,
and there was lively tussei to secure the prize,
for the seamen had been living for months
fish and canned stuff and the misunderstanding
vegetables made their mouths water. After a
good deal of pulling and hauling and swearing,
boats crew from the man -of-war Lota secured
possession of the yacht, and the officer in COM
mand generously offered to send some of its
contents to his rivals, but never did.
The prize was hauled alongside the Lota,
and its cargo transferred to the deck of that
of potatoes, and when that lifted ex-
plosion occurred which made all the vessels in
the harbor tremble and sent the Lota to
THE BOTTOM WITH ALL ON BOARD.
A well. known Yankee engineer in Callao
had rugged powerful torpedo in the bottom of
the yacht, so arranged that it would explode
when that bag of potatoes was lifted. How wei
his scheme succeeded the havy of Chill knows.
But even this disastrous experience did not
teach the Chillanos- caution; for few weeks
after the same trick was repeated with almost
as great success. torpedo was rugged in the
air chambers of lifeboat, which was hand
somely painted and set adrift. 1t was soon picked
up by a Chilian0 vessel, and, after being care
fully examined was declared to be all right;
but rs soon as the tackle from the davits was
hitched on, and the seamen began to haul the
prize on board, the torpedo exploded, killed
several men, and made great hole in the side
of the man of war. The same Yankee who
rugged up the vegetable boat prepared this
trap, and when the Chillanos captured Peru
they hunted high and low for him, but he had
escaped from the country, and is nov some
where in the United States
The same fleet was gulled again in a very
clever way by an English Captain i'll the en-
ploy of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
One morning his vessel appeared in the harbor
of Callao with the yelEow-fever flag, well Known
on that coast, at her masthead, and the Union
Jack at half-mast, with the ensign down, as a
signal of distress. The blockading officers at
once challenged her, and the Captain explained
that all the officers and engineers, the doctor,
and more than half the crew were
DOWN WITH YELLOW FEVER.
Then get out of here" answered the block
ade commander.
81 can't CO." was the reply. g have very
little coal, no one to run the engines and there
are not well hands enough on board to make
sail"
"What do you want to dor"
/" want doctor and some medicines and to
anchor somewhere here"
" You can't anchor here" was the reply.
"Then let me 90 into CallaO."
The blockading officers held consultation,
and finally concluded that it would be a good
campaign manuver to send yellow fever into
Callao so the English Captain was permitted
to pass the blockade. 1t was afterward discOv-
cred that the vessel was loaded to her gunwales
with arms and ammunition, and had no sick
ness whatever on board. The Captain was dis
missed from the service of the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company on the demand of Chilli
as as the deception was found out, and
now runs a vessel between London and Cal
cutta.
Dangerous Enemy.
We cannot too earnestly urge the necessity
of using the Compound Oxygen Vitalizing
Treatment of Drs Starkey u Paen, 1929 Arch
Ill IL.