Thomas County cat., 1890-07-24
CHASING A SLAVE ship.
Shell aad Destroys Thousands
of Lives.

smell aou Destroys ThOuS0nOo
ofLives.
II attended Uncle Toms Cabin at
the Park theatre the other day." said
Patrolman Streight to the Ananias club,
"and as sat in the gallery and watched
Eliza canter across the ice-made of
canvas-just ahead Of four or five dogs
that might as well be made of canvas,
so far as caninology goes, it brought
back to my mind All incident in my ca
reer that should I live to be as old as
Maguselam-"
"Who?" asked Sergt. Joyce.
"Maguselam, the guy who existed on
a certain earth for 10000 years. l say,
fellers, if 1 saculd live to be his age l
shall not forget it. l can't remember
the exact date, but it was less than
hundred years ago that l was in COM
mand of the French lman-Of-war Sein,
,and my mission on the high seas was to
look out for and capture African slave
traders One moonlight night as we
were plowing the swelling Atlantic at
the nominal speed Oi seventy-tive miles
an hour the lookout at the mast head
reported sail OH our lee quarter. l
ordered the helm thrown down hard
and as the hug. ship obeyed the rudder
her steel Prov killed nearly 1900 fish.
But we had n.orc at stake than fish, and
we did not stop to .ake any of them up.
In short time we were headed for the
strange sail, and it wasn't long until
from the quarter deck could see her
plainly.
"The smoke stacks of the Sein became
red hot, and one of them melted to the
decks, but 1 called for water, and the
ship was saved from destruction. We
did not lesson our speed for little thing
like that, but continued to split the
ocean open. Soon long. sinuous black
smoke ascended high above the masts
'of the chase Then / knew what we
were after. Hastily beating the men
to quarters l, in the deliberate voice l
use on the Lincoln Lane gang, told
them that there was fun ahead. The
vessel 200 miles ahead of us was slave
dhow, and for the honor of ourselves
particularly, and France as matter of
course, we must capture her. And
when we do says /, you fellers know
your business For two days and
nights we chased the strange craft, and
during that time / did not sleep wink
or eat Il mouthful of food, l was SO ex-
cited. AT six bells On the third day we
were in shooting range, and ordered
the ten ton rifle cannon to be fired.
The eighty ton shell fell ahead of the
SLAYER nearly two miles.
"The effect OIL the water was terrific.
Y on notice l said the shell weighed
eighty tons, and as it fell into the ocean
it exploded. The water raised in
solid wall that was, should Judge, 800
feet thick to an altitude of 1900 yards.
1t made hole that you could put the
state house, court house, insane asylum,
blind asylum and Union station into all
at one and the same time-that is, of
course, if you had them there. The
slave ship plunged against, at and into
this wall, and then came mighty crash
"a crash that was caused, as l after
ward learned, by an island sixty miles
distant being washed from its base by
the waves. The ship penetrating the
wall caused it to break and the up
heaved water fell in torrents, while the
SLAYER teetered on the brink of the huge
abyss for moment and then fell bow
first into the hole, and the scattered |
of the broken wall falling |
upon her buried her from sight forever. |
@In a few hours the sea was calm and |
Tor two months we cruised in that vicin-
ty, but not sign of the lost slaver was
lound. Twoyears after we picked up ON |
he coast of Zanzibar . water soaked
,ook that / am satisfied was the log Of
he lost ship. According to the book the
how that we destroyed was the Lemon
cared Nellie, from New Brunswick, and I
he had q, 600 slaves aboard, III Of whom
gere drowned I felt 20 bad about this
hat I resigned my placs In the French
layy and got job on the Indianapolis
'oliee force with moro pay and leaD
veak -Indianavolis Journal