The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-12-27
THE MUTINY On THE ALBATROS
An OLD SAILORS "REMINISCENCES.

An OLD SAILORS "REMINISCENCES.
On two occasions has the story of
+ the mutiny on the French merchant
ship Albatros been related in my pres
ence by the sole survivor, and the par
/ ticulars are SO fnll Of interest that |
! am going to give the affair in full
| The AlbatrOs was a stanch, new ship
Of 400 tons burden, built and fitted
| by French syndicate. which had pur-
chased, preemptied or stOlen-no one
ever knew which a large tract Of land
on the coast Of Brazil, near the mouth
Of the Amazon. The idea was to send
out a colony, and the syndicate pub
lished maps and pictures and various
/ advertisements of an alluring nature,
and about $50 persons finally made
oIauy TO sail fol this new found para
disc. Each one had been promised
fifty acres Of land. seed for two wears
crops, free native labor to build their
houses and fence their farms. and the
syndicate even dared claim that the
government sanctioned the enterprise.
The ship carried a crew of twenty
four, and was otticered after q curious
fashion. Her captain was "a Spaniard.
her first mate a E'renchman. her sec
Ond an EngEshman. Her crew was
made up Of Portuguese. Dutch.
French, Euglishman, Americans and
Swedes. Each officer and man was to
receive so much per month for the voy
Il F,t ,,,s
the colony as sort of prize cnromo
1t was, said William Carew, the
survivor, the worst crew | ever saw
on ships deck. | was a young fel-
low Of twenty three, and [ shipped
from spirit Of adventure, having no
care which way we headed nor what
port we made. [ suppose the same
sentiment actuated most Of the Others.
We were not shipped in the regular
way, but picked up one by one by the
syndicate or its agents This fact. to
gether with the promise Of land in the
new colony, made each sailor sort Of
partner IN the enterprise. and that
feeling was prejudical to good disci
pine. We all saw before the Albatros
was ready to sail that none Of our off
GERS We're competent men, and as |
watched the crew 80 about their work
was satisfied that we had onlv
seven or eight able seamen aboard.
Each sailor was permitted to bring on
board whatever articles he desired. and
a great many bottles of whiskev. there
fore found their way into the forecas
tie.
But II the crew was open to criti-
cism, what can | say Of the mob Of
colonlsts between decks ? There might
have been a dozen respectable. honest
men and women people who had been
basely deceived by the hoHory circu-
lars Of the syndicate. All the others
We're the riff-raff and rabble, and not
a few belonged to the criminal a!a7eo-
l think the exact number Of cOlonists
was 252. Of this number about sixty
were women and twenty were children.
L for one should have been better sat
lstled with passenger list of 252 lun-
atlcs, We sailed from Havre at eight
o'clock III the morning, April q, 1S47.
and were rOundly jeered and loudly
was IN his cabin, drunk and asleep, the
first mate had imbibed enough loren
der him silly, and the second mate
hardly knew enough to get sail on the
ship after the ting left us in the offing.
Three OF the foremost hands actually
had more to do with getting the ship on
her course than anYptficer in the ship.
1t was late IN the afternoon before
the captain and mate sobered up and
the ship was putin order Meanwhile
The few real sailors aboard had oppur
tunlty to size up the crew and realize
what slouchy set we had The pas
sengers were an impudent, wicked lot,
as we soon had reason to know They
knew the condition of the captain and
his mate, and would therefore pav no
attention tC the third officer We were
not two hours off the land when they
began quarrelling and fighting. and
IN an hour more two people complain |
ed that they had been robbed. On
the third day out twenty Of the best
people among the emigrants demand 4.
ed OF the captain that be should put
them aboard the first vessel spokpn
no matter to what part of the world
she was bound. Luckily for them on
that very day we ran head on to a
French ship bound to Havre. and the !
emlSTants made terms and were taken :
aboard, These twenty were probably
the only honest pepole in the whole
lot, After they had gone, the conduct
OF the others was simply outrageous. /
Had we had the right sort of a captain
everything would have gone smoothly
but ne was constantly under the infn
ence OF drink. aud when reasonably