Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-01-31
Steamer }. w. Hawkins, Heav-
lily Loaded, Sinks Off Mas
sachusetts' Coast.
Had on Board 100 Revolution
lists and a Cargo of Arms
and Ammunition. aa
Passing Vessels Pick Up, All
But Ten Of the Wrecked
Passengers.

Twenty five men from the steamer j.
w. Hawkins. supposed to have been
bound for Cuba with1enen and arms for
the insurgents, have been landed here
by the schooner State. The Hawkins
was wrecked off Long Island Monday
morning.
The schooner Alicia B. Crosby, which
arrived here later in the day, brought
10 more men from the steamer J. w.
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, however,
that 10 Of their number had been lost.
Jose G. Hernandez. Cuban, who was
on board the Hawkins, told the follow
ing story to q reporter for the Associ'
ated Press:
Says 1t Was = F'libusterer.
1--WE left New York in the Hawkins
last Saturday night. The steamship
belonged to the Cuban revolutionary
party, having been purchased recently
by them for filibustering work against
the Spanish. On board her were l2O
men Of the Cuban revolutionary party,
in addition to crew of Is men, COM
manded by Captain Hall. We put out
quietly in the dead Of night, and in q
few minutes were steaming for the
sound. We ran smoothly enough and
all the next day we had no trouble un-
til o'clock Monday morning. At
that time the sea was beginning to get
pretty rough and the engineer asked Tor
help. He said that the engineroom had
sprung aleak and that ..,,7.
Tho Pumps Wore Choked Up,
Men from the revolutionary party were
detailed to assist in bailing the engine
room out with buckets. At last the
water came into the engineroom 80 fast
that Captain Hall told US to Tighten the
ship by throwing over bags Of coal. We
threw it over as fast as we could, but it
did not seem to do any good. Then we
began to throw over the cases Of arms
and ammunition. There were over
5000 worth Of arms on board. We
had two Hotchkiss guns, 1900 Reming-
ton and Winchester rifles and 1000, 1000
rounds of ammunition. In addition to
this there were 5000 pounds Of dynaa
mite and a lot Of raw material
For Making Heavy Explosives.' =,
All these things we threw into the sea,
but still the water continued to gain on
us in the engineroom and at last it put
out the fires. About o'clock in the
morning we sighted three schooners
and they sailed as close to US as they
could with safety. Then it was that
we were ordered to take to the boats
This we did as fast as we could, but
there was a terrible sea by this time
and the work
Was Dangerous and Slow.
was in the first one. There were about
20 men besides myself in that boat and
it was greatly overcrowded and hard to
manage in the rough sea. The other 80
odd men came in the other two boats.
Six were drowned in trying to get into
the last two boats. Five other mem
bers of the revolutionary party were
also drowned. The boat was in was
picked up by the schooner Leander V.
Beebe. She picked up the first three
boats to leave the steamship and the
other two were picked up by the
schooners Helen II. Benedict Of Boston
and Alicia B. Crosby Of Portland, Ne.
PEH0AAlNG nEMNRAl I7ED