Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-01-19
FROsTBURG, Md, SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1901.


Il. There were If dead men and not a
living thing aboard of the Santa Maria.
On the cabin table there were the re-
mains nf breakfast, and in the fore
castle we're the kids with food still in
them. Whatever had occurred was in
conjunction with the morning meal.
AS there was no fever smell aboard the
dcrClict, our captain came over to
try bis hand at solving the mystery.
Ghc ships papers and log were soon
found. We got her manifest and port
and date of sailing, and the last entry
on the log had been made five days be-
fore. At that time all was we'll The
bodies in cabin and fOrecaStlc were of
course In better state of preservation,
and after al inspection the captain
gave it as his opinion that thC"Hltire
crow had been poisoned. The attitude
of each and every man went to prove
it. Their eyes were open and rolled
back, their fingers clutchcd and their
knees drawn up.
That derclct was q great find for us.
Her manifest showed a cargo valued
right above deck. AS to the water in
her hold, we manned the pumps and
had it out to the last pint in two hours.
Then we made an investigation to find
the leak, and we soon discovered that
a single auger hole had been bored in
her bottom. The oritice had become
more or less clogged with scawced,
70 nn t1lnr Ipn n
or four days to have filled the ship.
We argued that the man in the boat
must have come from the ship. AS he
had got away alone and had provision
ed the boat, it must have been after
the others were dead. He it was, then,
who had brought about the wholesale
death of the crew, and he must have
had strong motive. That motive was
discovered when some of the boxes of
treasure were hoistcd out of the laZa-
rette and broken open. Aside from
one or two boxes, the whole treasure
business was Il fake. Lead had been
substituted for silver and gold. The
furs were a cheat and a fraud, and
the value of the dycStuffs was not
one-quarter of the sum they were in
sured for. 4 second and closer search
of the stateroom evidently occupied by
the Supercargo gave lis the key to I'M
lock the whole mystery. He had left
behind him letter of instruction sign
ed by Alvarez at the City of Mexico,
and from that we learned that the
name of the dead man was Prado.
That letter, written in Spanish, was Of
no aid to lis except as far rs the two
names went, but later on, when trans
lated into English, its contents We're Of
a nature to make a man turn pale.
The instructions were to do just what
had been done. After the Santa Maria
had reached certain position he was
to poison the crew with a certain drug
prepared and then Scuttlc the ship and
take his leave in a small boat. 1t was
doubtless figured that if not picked up
he could easily reach the coast of Chile;
but. as | have told you, we found him
dead in his boat. How his death came
about cannot say, as he had food and
water and had not encountered any
bad weather | have always believed
however. that in his rpmorSe for the
awful deed he had done, coupled with
the tcrrors of his lonely situation, he
deliberately drank of the poison which
had laid the others low. 1t was before
the crew became too ill to move ahsut
that sail was taken off and she was
made snug against the weather.
With the auger hole plugged and a
part of our crew on board the Santa
Maria, we laid our course for the port
of NaldiVja, and in due time both
craft arrived there in good shape.
The dead had been given burial, Of
course. but there was no lack of other
proofs. AS soon as the plot was un-
raveled steps were taken for the ar
rest of Alvarez in Mexico, and our
claim for salvage was also filed. Gov
ernmcnts move slowly in International
matters. 1t was months before they
plotted this sea tragedy. He had
meanwhile continued his career of dis
sipation and extravaganza, depending
upon his insurance money to make ev-
crything good. News got to him some
how from Naldivia of the derelict be-
ing towcd in, and he left Mexico and
hid away in Bolivia. There he was at
last found. but he cheated the hang
man by committing suicide. Years
later the crew of the Homeward got a
few dollars apiece as salvage money.
The ship herself was lost at sea with a
full crew. You may ask why Prado
did not make n thorough job of scut-
tling the Santa Maria while he was at
it. lie must have been alone at the
time, except for the dead around him,
and he had a sharp auger to work
with. Had he bored half a dozen holes
instead of one the ship would have
gone down before being overhauled,
and in that case we could have made
nothing over finding his corpse in the
boat. The fact would have been en-
tered on the log and reported, but
would have caused no comment out
side of marine circles. Prado was
probably in n great hurry to get away
from the death ship, and in his haste
he bored only the one hole and then
fed in something of panic. Had he
carried his letter away with him it
would have taken us longer to unravel
the mystery, though the cheat in the
cargo must have sooner or later been
discovered. AS plot Matched against
the insurance companies it never had
an equal, and as a tragedy of the sea
one must believe that young Prado
was little short of a devil incarnate to
coolly sweep aside the II human beings
Nt,hn or in, L.;