The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-05-25
JOSE MACIEL MILLIONAIRE.
Owner Of q Bark Now Loading Lum
Der Here.

From a "Bum Boat'' to MiIlions-Yet He
Cannot Read or Write-How Admiral
Mello Squeezed Him for Ealf Million
| He is Now Specializing in Canadian
Lumber-A Description of the Bark
Walls ~ Inches Thick.
After q tramp through the unpleasant
atmosphere of one of the fish wharves,
it is relief and delight to visit one
of the great timber wharves, where every
thing is clean and wholesome and fra
grant The PRESS reporter visited
Frank Dudley's big lumber shed yester-
day afternoon. A crew of men were
loading spruce bards, etc, into the italian
bark Jose Oliveira Coelho, Capt. Joseph
G. Andrade.
This bark came here from Philadelphia
recently in ballast. She brought a cargo
OF bone to the latter port from Buenos
Ayres. She was built in Italy 20 years
ago and is worth looking at, not only
because fof the carved woodwork here and
there on the deck, but because of the
manner of her construction. She is built
as solidly as an old wooden man ofwar,
all her planking and timber being of
white oak
We went down into the hold where
they were storing away the lumber, and
the first mate, handsome young Portu-
guese, brother of the captain, said 81
gif you five dollar, you drive nail in
there %
He pointed to the great planks that
made the lining or ceiling of the vessel
The wood was teak, the hardest of all
wood, and to drive a nail into it would
practically be impossible. This ceiling
of teak wood was six inches thick. Next
outside are the timbers eight inches
thick. Then the outside planking of the
vessel comes next and is a wooden
armour of eight inches of solid oak.
Here is a sailing vessel with walls of
wood 20 inches thick The wall of wood
en- American schooner that carries lum-
Der to the river, while built in the same
way, is but IA or Is inches thick.
| This Italian vessel belongs to a very
extraordinary man whose name is Jose
AANeOASAt eeiiNl WllO3 puU ~ yCdl0 vi
age and unable to read or write, is worth
three or four millions of dollars He was
born in Portugal, and went to Rio Jane
iro at an early age. He was poor and
| ignorant, but had the money making fac
| ulty. He began with bum boat, So
| called, that is, little row boat from
transferring passengers from steamers to
shore He soon became the owner of
several bum boats. Then he got posses
| sion of a tug boat, and in few years he
owned seven tug boats, and by the time
the last rebellion came about, this man,
| unable to read or write, was one of the
richest men in Rio. He was so rich that
when he went to an island that he owned
outside Rio harbor to overlook his bust
ness interests there, he was captured by
the rebel admiral Mello. He declared that
| he was an independent, but Mello choose
to believe him supporter of the gov
ernment because he knew him to be
very rich, and he demanded and forced
from him ransom of $500, 000
"When he got him in his hand, he
squeeze him, " said the mate, after he had
told the reporter the above facts.
The italian bark is this Portuguese
millionaire's first venture in the lum-
Der business. He removed to Buenos
Ayres during the rebellion, and is located
there now. He bought this big, hand
some bark and sent her up here to Maine
Just to try his hand at specializing in
the lumber business.