The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-01-31

Cuban Filibuster Hawkins Sunk
Off Long Island.


ship j. w. Hawkins, an alleged filibuster,
which was wrecked off the eastern end Of
Long Island Sunday night told the fol-
lowing story to a reporter yesterday after
noon:
Jose G. Hernandez, a Cuban, who was
on board the Hawkins, told the following
story to a reporter yesterday afternoon:
eve left New York in the Hawkins
last Saturday night" he began. ''rhe
steamship belonged to the Cuban revou-
tionary party, having been purchased re-
Gently by them for filibustering work
against the Spanards. On board her
were 100 men of the Cuban revolutionary
party. In addition to this was crew of
16 men. The ship was commanded by
Captain Hall. H. Crowell was mate.
1--WE left New York at midnight last
Saturday. The steamship was then at the
foot of One Hundred and Thirth-eighth
street, East river. We stole out quietly
in the dead of night and in a few min
utes were steaming for the Sound. We
ran smoothly enough that night and oil the
next day We had no trouble until 8
o'clock Monday morning. At that time
the sea was beginning to get pretty rough,
and the engineer asked for help He said
that the engine room had sprung aleak,
and that the pumps were choked. Two
men from the revolutionary party were
detailed to assist in bailing the engine
room out with buckets.
Later more men were detailed for the
same purpose, but the water kept gaining
on them. We could not get the wafer out
of the engine room as fast as it came in,
and the sea was getting rougher all the
time. At last the water came into the en-
CINE room so fast that Captain Hall told
us to tighten the ship by throwing bags of
coal overheard. The coal was piled up on
deck. 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. We had a
great quantity on board There were over
$4,000 worth of arms alone. We had two
hotohkiss guns, 1900 bennington and win
chester rifles and 100000 rounds of am
munition. 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.
eve worked all night, and when day
light came we had thrown all of the cargo
and coal overheard Still the water con-
tinued to gain on us in the engine room,
and at last it put out the fires, and we
doated at the mercy of the sea and the
winds. At intervals, all through the
hours of darkness, we burned rockets and
fired signals of distress.
But it was not until about o'clock in
the morning that we saw any other yes
sell At that time we sighted three schoon-
al
could with safety. Then it was that we
were ordered to take to the boats There
were six small boats on the steamship
but only five of them were available. The
sixth was so covered with wreckage which
had been thrown over it by us in the eff
forts to get at the arms and coal that we
could not launch her in time. We got
into our boats as fast as we could, but
there was terrible sea by this time, and
the work was dangerous and slow.
"CalixitO Garcia Iniga was in command
of the reyolutionists, and his son, Carlos
Garcia was second in command General
Rosa was also on board. These officers
ordered us to take to the boats, and we
did so. / was in the first boat. There
were about 20 men besides myself in that
boat, and it was greatly oAI'crOwded and
Hard to Manage In the Rough Sea.
"The other 50 odd men came in the other
two boats. Six were drowned in trying to
get into the last two boats. do not
know the names of all who were drowned,
but one was a French chemist, who was
with the expedition to make heavy ex-
plosives when we got to Cuba There
were two of these chemists but only one
of them was lost. Another of those who
drowned A
veriche. He was member of the revolu-
tionary party, as were the other four who
went down in the sea.
'The boat L was in was picked up by
the schooner Leander V. Beebe, Captain |
w. H. Howes, of Boston. She picked up
the first three boats to leave the steam
ship, and the other two were picked up |
by the schooners Helen H. Benedict of Bos-
ton and Alicia B. Crosby of Portland, F!
Me.
"We left the ship at o'clock on Mon
day morning, and 20 minutes later we
saw her go down She gave a great lurch |
to one side and then settled into the sea-
''The schooner Leander V. Beebe sailed |
for this port, but 1 was taken off her |
off Long Branch by the tug Fred B. Dali
,zell, commanded by H. G. DeNyse, and |
brought direct to this city. | landed at
pier 3, N. r., and reported at once to the
headquarters of the revolutionary party
in the Manhattan building. They told
me that they had received kilograms from
Woods Holl, Mass, and from Boston,
saying that the rest of the crew and the
revolutionists were all safe, with the ex-
oeption of the six that were drowned
when we left the steamship.
"There were no Americans on board the
Hawkins They were all Cubans, who
had been enlisted in this city to fight for
the cause of freedom for Cuba. We were
not drilled in this city, but were enlisted
for the cause. We only knew that we
were going to Cuba. No one, except the
captain and the commander, knew what
part of Cuba we were bound for"
1t was learned at the office of f. b. Dali
cell g. Co. that their tug, which brought
Hernandez to this city, was hailed by the
schooner Leander V. Beebe, 40 miles
southeast of Barnegat, N J. The Haw-
kins' survivors on board asked to be taken
of and brought to New York. Seventy
of them were transferred to the Dalzell
and brought to this city, Hernandez land
ing, as before stated, at pier 8, North
river, the remainder disembarking at
pier 20, North river.