Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-03-14
SALUTE OF solid shot
Questionable Action Of a
Spanish Warship.

spanish WarSnlp.
An American Passenger Steamship
Chased and Fired on without Ap-
parent Justifloation-Seore of
State Gresham Notified and Inter-
national Complications May Arise.
New York, March 13.-The American
mail steamship Alliance was fired up
on March by Spanish gunboat off
| the eastern shore of Cuba. Secretary
| Gresham has been formally notified
| of the circumstances and the affair
may lead to serious complications. Tho
| story told by the Allianca's officers
is that at daylight last Friday morn
ing about $50 o'clock, while going
! through the Windward passage from
the Caribbean sea to the Atlantic,
! ship was seen coming out from under
the land OF Cape Maysi, the eastern
| point of Cuba. The stranger laid her
course with the evident object of in
tercepting the Allianca, and at Z
O'Clock she hoisted the orange and
crimson colors which, taken with her
build and general appearance, left no
! doubt in the minds of those aboard
the Alliance that she was a Spanish
man-of-war No sooner were the gun
| boats colors seen at her mizzen peak
than Captain Crossman of the ALI
anca ordered the stars and stripes
to be hoisted on the jack staff over
the taffrail and dipped three times
! in salute. The marine courtesy was
| returned in kind by the warship and
the Allianca's ensign was unbent from
its halliards and slowed away. Hardly
had this been accomplished than the
! Spaniard again displayed his colors.
and, as mark OF extra pollteness
! Captain Crossman ordered the ALI
anca's flag to be run up and dipped
again. and then left flying. Again
| was the salute acknowledged, and then
| to the utter amazement of those
aboard the American steamer, blank
shot was fired from one Of the war
vessels forward port guns. The shot
was probably meant as an invitation
to the Alliance to heave to, but Cap
tain Crossman had no intention OF
| obeying the summons. He remarked
TO Second Officer Russell, who was
on duty on the bridge, THE Spaniard
seems to be firing a shot" and then
| calmly kept to his course. Soon
another blank shot was fired, which
the captain greeted by saying, "All
right; let him shoot to hill"
Shooting In Earnest.
A third shot was fired. but this
| time 1t was shot in earnest. 1t was
a solid shot and not a harmless blank
cartridge with which the gunboat
next charged her bow port rife, and
she waved from her course that the
gun might be aimed at the Yankee
merchantmen. The course of the shot
could be seen where 1t rioocheted along
| the water before finally going to the
bottom, a full quarter of a mile short
of its mark. Still Captain Crossman
kept his course and waited for the
gunboat to overtake him, If it could.
The black smoke began to pour from
the gunboats funnel and the water
around her bow to heap up in way
that showed that her fires were being
vigorously stocked and steam forced up
to it's big heat limit. The gunboat
fired again. ten minutes later, ana
still again after another equal inter-
val of time But observation through
the glass showed that she was grad
ually falling astern, and after q chase
lasting for twenty-five miles she gave
1t up and laid away on her course
Captain Crossman was very indignant
over the occurrence. He said:
I'VE were from six to eight miles
| off shore when the occurrence took
place, and not. In Spanish jurisdiction
at all We were to the southward of
Cuba when we first sighted the war;
ship and far away from Guantanamo,
where l understand they have been
having trouble in that country. In
consequence of this / took particular
pains to keep off my ordinary course.
I usually pass within a mile Of Cape
| Maysi, but on this trip l was from
four and a half to five miles off shore,
and therefore outside the Spanish jur-
isdiction, as / knew that a gunboat
was patrolling those waters. 1 could
not see any reason why he could stop
me on the high sea. If 1t had been
one Of our men-of-war / might have
stopped, as he might have wanted to
send some mall, of l wound have
stopped If he had been in distress
always. But If he wanted to talk with
powder and shot, he'd have TO catch
us first,
"If I had been within one marine
league of shore, would have stopped
my ship; but I wasn't, and he had no
right to stop me. We were going at
our usual speed of thirteen knots,
when we met the warship and we
kept 1t up. Although he fired up, he
couldn't make more than about eleven
and a half knots, and we slowly
dropped him astern. 1 suppose he
wanted to show the authority and
prestige of a warship, but, time is
valuable, in this business, and / have
none to waste on gunboats Besides,
anyone with half the eye of a seaman,
could see that this was an ordinary
passenger steamer - with awnings
spread fore and aft, just going about
her business. He set no signals till
we were so far away we couldn't read
them 1t may be that the ship was a
new one on that station. One thing
that makes it look that way was that
the ship was painted black and her
bottom seemed very clean. They al
II. ~.