The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-31
TIE HAWKINs UNsEA WORTHY.

| IHE IA hINS UNSEA V cHihA'
 The Pilot of the Eilibusterer Tells How tho
 ship Foundered-A Arms and Ammunition l ?hrowu Overheard,
 New York, Jan. SO.-The men who sold the J. w. Hawkins to the Cupans ought to be taken out and shot she was nothing more than trap to drown
 the whole crowd" said the man at the
 wheel when the mate reported to tne captain that the Hawkins was sinking.
 Jack, do the best you can," replied
 the captain. Run her west by south
 for the shore"
 The Hawkins wasn't making more
 than two knots an hour. All the Gu
 bans on board were turned out of their
 hunks and set to work on the buckets.
 The pipes were all clogged up.
 The Cubans were i'll, seasick, but they
 worked for their lives
 "The only hope was to keep the vessel
 afloat until daybreak," said Hugh Con
 ley to-day. Conley was at the wheel | WIlSn tuC CULlllllpl VI sAiS AA'sF ''sN
 made known to the captain. The hrst
 mate brought the information.
 She wouldn't have lived two hours
 in the Gulf Stream under ordinary con
 ditions."
 The crew that brought the Hawkins
 from Baltimore and tied her up at Fort
 Morris then left her. Two other vessels I--one laden with provisions and the oth-
 CT with the arms and ammunition that
 Maceo is probably expecting to-day or
 to-morrow-ra alongside the Hawkins
 and transferred their cargoes.
 All this was done at night. At dusk
 Saturday the Hawkins had everything
 on board that she needed except crew.
 And no one of her new crew knew who
 any other member was to be. This new
 crew of sixteen men were gallant, ad-
 venturous crowd
 TO at least one among them the busi-
 ness in which they were about to en- gage was nothing new. One member
 of the crsw had worked on blockade
 runners all through the late civil war.
 And none of the crew knew aught of the
 trap that was under them, Fishing ves-
 sells are usually good sea craft They
 thought this one no exception,
 The Hawkins swung from her moor ings a little before o'clock. Not a Cu- ], ban was on board at the time. All of , her cargo was on deck. Huge bales in
 plain sight, except for the darkness. At least nothing was concealed below l decks. It was 1 o'clock Sunday morn ing before another vessel came along r side the Hawkins, which, steaming slowly, was about opposite New Ro-
 chelle. There General Garcia, his son, and their friends were taken aboard. 5 When the sun came up Sunday morn 5 ling it was evident to the trained eye of l the sailor that the Hawkins was trap 7 of the first water, Her bow stood high 5 enough in the water, but her stern, as 3 Conley said would have been swamped s by the wash of an ordinary ferryboat. l Any man." said Conley, "who would 3 have attempted to cross the East river
 in her would have been a fool. If any z of the crew had seen her in daylight t she wouldn't have had any crew. a We were about fifty miles from ] Block Island confey continued, when g the ship sprung aleak. It had been . smooth sailing before this. Almost inn l mediately the pumps gave out so that 5 IHGI'S WdS uOlllllS u ICCQ lilC bOiiSA ! with Then the bilge pumps went too, y and every one was put to work at the t buckets. The only idea was to keep the
 trap afloat until daylight. And by day. Il light the seas were running as high as l a house. The Hawkins was on the t point of going down.
 t All night long the precious cases of e revolvers and rifles, and Hotchkiss : guns and ammunition and dynamite Il had been following each other to the ( bottom of the sea. There was no hope [ to beach the boat and save them. p General Garcia was perfectly cool and . collected when the time came to take [ to the lifeboats. He ordered his men e to do just what they were told to do z and nothing more.
 Q When the first boat was launched fhe r captain ordered Conley into it. He ha6 e only a eextant. In a minute twenty-si,
 Cubans had piled in after him. e Let go the painter" yelled the cap U tain, fearful lest the boat would be over a crowded and sunk.
 n The painter was let go. Conley tool d his place int the bow to keep the boat! 1T head to the wind. He commanded tn, e men to lie down. Not one of them un '' derstood how to use an oar. Not on, j. of them could speak English. Conley r. was substantially alone.
 For three hours they drifted about u The schooner Crosby went by them 5 but the Beebe took them aboard. Jus II you say about the captain of the Beebe, l. said Conley, that he's the finest gen II tleman in the world, and that he know l. his business. General Garcia and hi
 boats creW-lthe second-were the frs 'e to be taken aboard. We were the sec F. ond And it was job getting thos T Cubans safely on the Beebe.''
 When the third boat load came along l. side it was thought that she woult u surely capsize. There was not a mal in the boat, apparently, who knew hoy ,l 1, to make line fast. Conley droppe' T. from the rail of the Beebe and fas st tened the line. Then he helped tie tn s ropes around the Cubans before the, e were drawn over the side.
 le One man, in his eagerness to ge
 aboard. fell into the water. The Beebe' II mate plunged in after him. Anothe $ saEor went to his assistance and tn l. man was saved
 y Lack of knowledge of seamanship wa l. what caused the last boat to capsize III Two engineers, two firemen, the ex