Omaha daily bee., 1896-01-29
SHIP PROVED A LEAKY ONE
Garcia's Party of Filibusters Wrecked on
Long Island.
SIX MEMBERS OF THE PARTY DROWNED
Large Amount OF Arms and Ammuni-
tion Intended for Cuba Now
ut the Bottom OF
the Sea.

party or twenty-five men VINO were picked up
from open boats off Long Island Monday
morning by the schooner Helen Benedict.
we're landed here late last night and left
here early today for New York. whence they
sailed last Sunday. The men were all reti-
cent about their affairs and would give little
information as to the circumstances attend
ing the wreck, but 1t was learned that their
ship was the steamer j. w. Hawkins, re-
Gently purchased at Baltimore for an alleged
Cuban cruise and that she sailed from New
York last Sunday night, having on board
between seventy-ive men and 100 men bound
1t is claimed to join the Cuban insurgents.
The rescued men report that when the
steamer was off the eastern end of Long
Island she sprang a serious leak and tho
water gained so rapidly that all hands were
obliged to take to the boats.
On Monday morning the men were picked up
up by passing schooner, the Benedict, bound
from Norfolk to Boston with coal. getting
twenty-five of them. 1t is thought that all
of the others were saved.
The schooner Alicia Is. Crosby which ar
rived here later in the day, brought thirteen
more men from the steamer Hawkins. The
men displayed great anxiety to get back to
New York and would have very little to
say about their affairs 1t was learned, how
ever that ten Of their number had been
lost The men were transferred to Woods
Hole as soon as possible after their arrival
and sent to New York by the earliest train.
Particulars of the wreck of the Hawkins
had been CLEANED from the men by the OIL
GERS OF tie rescuing vessel AS nearly as
could be ascertaincd, the story Is that the
steamer sailed from New York on Sunday,
ostena,bly bound to Bermuda winter
excursion. She carried, however, about
eighty men, mostly Spaniardo, i cannon and
several hundred pounds of ammunition. 1t
was intimated that several wealthy
C,,Ia IL, fba
morning they ran into a heavy gale and
the heavy cross seas which swept the steamer
caused her seams to open and she began
to fill rapidly. Signals of distress were fired,
but before those on board had time to more
than clear the boats shs went down, about
! sxty-five miles southeast of Sandy Hook light
ship.
SAW THE SIGNALS.
The schooners Leander w. Beebe, Alicia
b. Crosby and Helen II. Benedict had seen
the Hawkins signals and Immediately went
to her. The crew and passengers already
had taken to the boats and they were picked
up with much difficulty on account of the high
seas. The Benedict picked up twenty-five
men, among them being the steamers
first officer and steward. The Crosby saved
thirteen out of twenty-three out OF another
| boat, but the other ten were unable to handle
| the boat in the rough seas and were lest.
| The rescued men were nearly exhausted.
| The Beebe succeeded In resculng those In the
| 0tner DSat9, out sne put DaCh, ptopapy Iva
| Delaware breakwater, or some other middle
| Atlantic port. 1t Is claimed by the men that
| the Hawkins was unselworthy and should
never have undertaken the voyage.
| NEW YORK. Jan. 2S.-Joseph G. Her
nandez Cuban who was on board the
steamship ]. w. Hawkins. an alleged fill
| clustering expedition which was wrecked on
the western end of Long island last Monday
| night told the following story to reporter
, fo- the Associated press this afternoon:
| No lnft w York
Saturday night" he began. "The steamship
| belonged to the Cuban revolutionary party,
| having been purchased recently by them Tor
fibustering work against the Spaniards. On
board her were 100 men OF the Cuban revo-
| IL t'onary party. In addition TO this was
crew of sixteen men. The ship was COM
manded by Captain Hall. C. II. Crowen
was mate.
I'VE left New York at midnight last Sat-
urday from the foot of One Hundred and
Th'rty-eighth street, East river.
I'VE put out quietly in the dead of night
and in a few minutes were steaming for the
! sound We ran smoothly enough and all
the next day. We had no trouble until
o'clock Monday morning. At that time tho
sea was beginning to get pretty rough and
| the engineer asked for help. He said that
the engine room had sprung leak and that
| the pumps were choked up. Twelve men
| from the revolutionary party were detailed
to assist in bailing the engine room out
with buckets.
| Later more men were uetallel tn6
| same purpose, but the water kept gaining
| on them. We could not get the water out Of
| the engine room as fast as 1t came in and
the sea was getting rongher all the time.
| At last the water came into the engine
| room so fast that Captain Hall told us to
tighten the ship by throwing over bags Of
coal The coal was piled up on deck We
| threw 1t over as fast as could, but It
| did not seem to do any good
THREW THE ARMS OVERHEARD.
| "Then we began to throw over the cases OF
| arms and ammunition. We had great
quantity on board. There were over $780, 900
| worth of arms alone. We had two Hotch-
kiss guns, 1,2O0 Remington and Winchester
| rifles and 100000 pounds of ammunition.
| In addition to this there were 5000 pounds
| Of dynamite and a lot of raw material for
making heavy explosives. All these things
| we threw into the sea, which by this time
| was boiling around us, and sending great
| waves over the decks. We worked all night
| and when daylight came we had thrown all
| Of the cargo and coal overheard. Still the
water continued to gain on us in the engine
room. and at last 1t put out the fires. At
| intervals all through the hours of darkness.
we burned rockets and fired signals or
distress. But II was not until about o'clock
| I'm the morning we saw another vessel. At
| that time we sighted three schooners, and
| they sailed as close to as they could with
| safety. Then we were ordered to take
| to the boats. There were six email boats
| on the steamship, but only hve OF them
| were available. The sixth was covered
| with wreckage which had been thrown
over 1t by us in the efforts to get at the arms
and coal that we could not launch her in
time
1--WE got into our boats as fast as we
could, but there was a terrible sea by this
time and the work was dangerous and
slow We found out afterward that we
| we're about 1927 latitude and 33.37 longitude
west Caisto Garcia Inaga was in COM
mand Of the revolutonists and his son Carlos
Garcia was second in commend. General
Rosa was also aboard. These officers ordered
us to take to the boats and We did so. was
| in the first. There were about twenty be-
sides myself In that boat and 1t was greatly
overcrowded, and hard to manage In the
rough sea- The other sixty came In tho
other two boats. Six were drowned In try
ing to get into the last two boats I dd
not know the names OF those drowned, bud
one was a French chemist, who was with
the expedition to make heavy explosives,
when we got to Cuba. There we're two Of
these chemists but only one Of them was
lost. Another OF those who we're drowned
was man named Alyericho He wos a mem@
Der OF the revolutionary party, as were the
other four who went down. The boat was
| in nipkad nm nv he sphoonar I.ea nde n