The Florida agriculturist., 1889-04-03


in-chief to the commandant of the fort
and then row back again. No answer
was required.
When the commandant read the brief
note he made no remark. In fact, he
could think of no appropriate remark to
make. The missive simply informed
him that at ten o'clock and eighteen
minutes a. m., of that day, the first
boom from the marine forces of the syn
dicate had been discharged into the
waters of the harbor. AT, or about two
o'clock p. m., the second bomb would be
discharged at Fort Pitcher. That was all.
What this extraordinary message
meant could not be imagined by any
officer Of the garrison. If the people on
board the ships were taking advantage
Of the earthquake, and supposed that
they could induSEe British soldiers to be-
lieve that it had been caused by one of
their bombs, then were they idiots in
deed. They would fire their second shot
at Fort Pitcher! This was impossible,
for they had not yet fired their first shot.
These syndicate people were evidently
very tricky, and the defenders of the
port must therefore be very cautious.
Fort Pitcher was a very large and un-
finished fortification, on bluff on the
opposite side of the harbor. Work had
been discontinued on it as soon as the
syndicate's vessels had appeared off the
port, for it was not desired to expose the
builders and workmen to a possible
bombardment The place was now,
therefore, almost deserted; but after the
receipt of the syndicates message, the
commandant feared that the enemy
might throw an ordinary shell into the
unfinished works, and he sent boat
across the bay to order away any work
men or others who might be lingering
about the place.
A little after 2 o'clock p. m. an instan-
taneous motor bomb was discharged
from Repeller No. into Fort Pitcher.
It was set to act five seconds after i'm
pact with the object aimed at. 1t struck
in a central portion of the unfinished
fort, and having described high curve
in the air, descended not only with it's
own motive power, but with the force of
gravitation, and penetrated deep into the
earth.
Five seconds later vast brown cloud
appeared OH the Fort Pitcher promon-
tory. This cloud was nearly spherical
in form, with an apparent diameter Of
about thousand yards. At the same
instant shock similar to that accom-
panying the first motor bomb was felt in
the city and surrounding country, but
this was not so severe as the other, for
the second bomb did not exert it's force
upon the underlying rocks of the region,
as the first one had done.
The great brown cloud quickly began
to lose it's spherical form, part of it de-
scending heavily to the earth and part
floating away in vast dust clouds borne
inland by the breeze, settling downward
as they moved, and dcpositing on land,
water, ships, houses, domes and trees an
almost impalpable powder.
When the cloud had cleared away
there were no Notifications, and the bluff
on which they had stood had disappeared.
Part of this bluff had floated away on
the wind and part of it lay piled in great
heaps of sand on the spot where it's rocks
were to have upheld fort.
The effect of the motor bomb was fully
observed with glasses from the various
Notifications of the port and from many
points of the city and harbor; and those
familiar with the effects of explosives
were not long in making up their minds