Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-25

the Alabama-E1ying Two Flags In Neu-
trail waters-How the Escape Was Made
During the greater part of the war"
said the retired skipper, there were
large number of American clippers STALL
| ed in Hong Kong harbor, having orders
! to remain there from their owners, who
feared the Alabama. This arrangement
did not at all please the captains and
officers, as many of US were anxious to
go home and ship in the navy, but orders
were orders. We could not leave the
ships, and the frequent visits of the Ala
bana herself to the harbor. forcing her
, self into our midst as the saying goes,
/ were very vivid reminders that neutral
waters were a pretty good sort of an in
vention-
Although we passed the long weeks
and months as pleasantly as we could.
with all kinds of arrangements for kill
ing time, both on shipboard and on
shore, there was of course a continual
and concerted growl going up from our
little band of Yankee shippers, ana Old
Hobbs was the star GROWER of Us all
His ship was the Humming Bird. a
| brand new clipper mailing from Boston
| The trip out to Hopg-Xong had ben her
| maiden one. and il was chasr, TO Z p5bs'
not very smooth temper to have hor lie
idle SO early in her carer Having --eat
faith IN the ships speed and Ill his own
| seamarship. he was more than anxious
TO put to sea and let Semnes catch him
if he could; but, like the rest of Us, his
| orders n ron, aiY1 yx-ara r,oci-ix-a
Occasionally ship would manage to
clear by sailing under some foreign flag.
but as it was complicated process in
volving fathoms of red tape and very Of
ten fell through just when everything
seemed favorable it was not resorted to
very often. When 1t was tried, however,
old Hobbs would go on his beam ends
| with wrath. He would fume and rant,
| casting aspersions on the patriotism of
the owners, the agents, the officials, and
even the Chinese crew. He was so in
tensely patriotic that to see a good Van
kee craft sail under false colors would
keep him boiling for a week.
| you can see what his feelings were
when one day he was ordered to proceed
to Sumatra under the British flag He
fumed, ranted and swore and then
| fumed, ranted and swore over again,
with few extra choice nautical anath-
emas thrown in for emphasis. This nee
essary operation over, he sent ashore to
| the native sailmaker's for British flag
the smallest to be had. When it came
aboard-it was about by feet in size
Hobbs looked at it askance and or
| 70, lafa Of -~r1,H
ing day.
Sailing day arrived. and the British
flag was seen futtering quietly from its
proper place on the Eumming Bird. 1t
attracted mighty little attention, how
ever, for the Alabama was entering the
harbor. She fioated slowly along and
dropped anchor exceedingly close TO the
Humming Bird. About this time the
harbor master was seen in his boat be
ing rowed rapidly toward Hobbs ship,
and huge bundle of bunting about the
size of an old shellback's sea chest was
rapidly hauled to the maintop of the
Humming Bird.
The harbor master pulled up along
side the Humming Bird and yelled for
the captain. 1t could be seen that he
was angry about something. Hobbs
came to the rail in his plug hat and long
tailed bottle green coat, the customary
uniform of a skipper in those days,
and asked the harbor master what he
could do.
81 want you to take down that flag
instantly, sir said the harbor master.
"'Guess not said Hobbs.
| - -.
hoist such a flag as thatv
whats the matter with the flag"
said Hobbs, surprised.
Its all wrong, sir; the proportions
are all wrong. The field is too long for
its width, and the rest of it is too wide for
its length. The crosses are wrongly ar
ranged, sir, and it is vile caricature of
an honored flag, sir! Remove it imme-
diatelyr
"'Guess not said Hobbs again. That
flag was bought in a British port and
made by British subject. He was a
Chinaman, but that is neither here nor
there. | don't care if it is the flag of
Patagonia, SO long as it was sold to me
for that of England. Good morning.
The harbor master had nothing to say
TO this and started back, but he had no
sooner done so than the main halliards
were pulled, the bundle at the peak
broke out, and in a second the stars and
stripes were waving before the aston
ished eyes of the harbor master, the Yam
kee shippers and Captain Semmes of the
Alabama Indeed, SO large was Old
Glory in this particular case that it al
most brushed the Alabamas decks, the
vessels being sonear together. The huge
flag had been presented to the ship at
her launching and to the excited spec
tators on this occasion seemed larger
than the ship herself
The harbor master put about, angrier
than before, and demanded explanations
What does that flag mean. sir?' said
he
That's my house flag said Hobbs: