Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-07-19
A TALE OF THE SEA.

The schooner Three Bells and the
| sloop Pilgrim, captured by the gunboat
Dixie, near Manzanillo on July 6, ar
! rived here to-day under prize crews.
Marryat never imagined more gro
! tesque tale of marine misadventure
than was experienced by those crews in
! bringing their spoils to port. They en-
countered suicide and Spanish bullets
and buffeted about by hostile winds,
! drifted helplessly about in strange seas
until we'll night hopeless of ever reach
! ing shore.
! Both prizes were under the British
flag, bound from Kingston, Jamaica,
j for Manzanillo, with food supplies. On
the Three Bells was Captain E. j.
Harding, an Englishman, and a crew
of five and three Jamaica negroes. The
! Pilgrim carried a Dutch captain and
four seamen of the same nationality.
The captures were effected without
difficulty and Blount and Hatton, Meth
er of whom had ever been at Key West
began the journey here. Captain Hard
| ing was much depressed over the cap
| ture and drank heavily until Lieut..
Blount stopped his liquor.
On the evening of July 9, when about
six miles south Of Key Romano, Cap
tain Harding suddenly leaped over
board astern. The Pilgrim put out a
small boat and caught him, but he
struggled desperately and capsized the
boat. One of the marines held him up
on the overturned boat and he was
taken on board the Pilgrim, but he was
! dead when they reached the deck. 1t
| is thought that he took a dose of
laudanum before jumping into the sea.
There happened to be Church of Eng
land prayer book on board and next
morning. Sunday, Lieut.. Blount read
the service and the dead captain was
buried at sea.
This dismal duty was hardly COM
pleted when they sighted two small
schooners near Key Romano. Neither
I
of the prizes was flying a flag, but
both were evidently recognized by the
strangers as expected blockade runners
| from Jamaica, for one of the schooners
put out a small boat TO pilot them in.
AS it approached, Lieut.. Blount was
running up an American flag to the
| fore peak, but he had some difficulty
| in breaking it out, so that when the
small boat was within ten yards of the
schooner the two men who were
aboard of it were still ignorant of the
fact that they were running near to
the enemy. Then Eieut. Blount shout
ed Are you Spaniards?"
4; AS one of the two, with proud ges-
; ture answered: "Me Espagnol." the
Stars and Stripes broke from the fore
of the Three Bells, whereupon both
: occupants OF the small boat cried in
dismay: "Americanos, Caramba!" and
plunged into the sea. Whether or not
| they reached shore is an open Ques-
ton. Lieut.. Blount and his men went
on in and captured the nearest schoon-
er, which proved to be the Concencion
| The other ran off into shoal water and
escaped. The Conception was we'll
loaded with fish, wine aftH other pro-
visions, while scattered over her decks
were bags of small coins, aggregating
! about $50, a large number of Mauser
bullets and other cartridges, but only
one shot gun.
| They took her in tow and then ba,
gan a chapter of misfortunes. Violent
tropical qualls burst upon them the
same day and continued almost in
cessantly until last night. They had
no charts aboard and only a map of
the world torn, from a 25 cent guide
book to help them as they f1oundered
about in the seas-three little vessels,
none much bigger than cat boat
In the course of the day the wind
and the waves had played havoc with
the Conceptions and they decided to
| abandon her, and after transferring
| the money they set her adrift. We'd
nesday morning storm Of unusual
violence fell on them off Cape Antonio.
| Unable to make any progress and
expecting almDtt momentai-ily to
| founder, they lay there all day. But
| this was trivial to what followed Late
in the afternoon az they bumped help
lessly about body Of Spanish riflemen
on shore opened fire. The only arms
on the two prize vessels were the
weapons df the marines. nine revolv-1
crs. and no attempt was mace to Se-