The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-01-29
THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OFF AMY M0RTH GAR0lMA DAILY

last Saturday night. The steamship
belonged to the Cuban revolutionary
party having been purchased recently
by them for filibustering work against
.the Spaniards.
"On board her were 120 men OF the
Cuban revolutionary party In addi-
ton to this was a crew of 16 men. The
ship was commanded by Captain Hall
c. II. Crowell was mate.
1--WE left New York at midnight last
Saturday, from the foot of l3Sth
street East River.
I'VE put out quietly in the dead of
night and in Il few minutes were
steaming for the sound. We ran
smoothly enough that night and all
the next day. We had no trouble until
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 leak and that the
pumps were cho1ed. Two men from
the revolutionary party We're detailed
to assist in bailing the engine room
out with buckets.
Later more men were detailed Tor
the same purpose, but the water Kept
gaining on them. At last the water
came into the engine room so fast that
Capt. Hall told us to tighten the ship
by throwing overheard bags OF coal.
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
eases of arms and ammunition. We
had great quantity on board. There
were over $4,000 worth of arms alone.
We had two Hotchl<iss guns, 1900
Remington and Winchester rifles, and
one million rounds of ammunition. In
addition to this th0ke were 5000 pounds
Of dynamite and 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 oveI>oard. Still the
water continued to gain on us in the
engine room, and at last it put out the
fires.
'At intervals, all through the hours
OF darkness. we burned rockets and
1ftd StGiIdIS III bjNiiNeNs i'hN II ~ HS
not until about o'clock in the morn
ing that we saw any other vessel At
that time 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.
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 efforts to get ~
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.
.CaliXto Garcia was IN command
Of the reiulutionists, and his son, Car
los Garcia. WAS second in command
Gen. Rosa was also on board. These
officers ordered us to take to the boats'
and we did so.
u was in the first boat. There vert
about twenty men besides myself in
the boat, and it was greatly over
crowded and hard to manage in the
rough sea.
',rhe other sixty odd men came in
the other two boats. Six were drown
ed in trying to get into the last two
boats. 4
I'VE left the ship at 8 o'clock on Mon
day morning, and twenty minutes
later we saw her 20 down. She gave
a great Iurch to one side and then set
tied into the sea.
There were no Americans on board
the Hawkins They were all CubanS
who had been enlisted here for the
cause. We only knew that we were
going TO Cuba. No one except the
Captain and the Commander ~.new
what part Of Cuba we were bound for.