Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1903-12-16
A SPANISH PIRATE
Copyright 1903. BY G. B. Lewis.l


the Jane Snow of Newburyport, bound
for the West Indies, had sighted Porto
Rico, a pirate brig appeared to wind
ward. She had been so often described
that there was no installing her. She
was a Spanish craft Familiarity known
as the Black Devil.
Josiah Marsh was skipper of the
Snow, and his crew numbered twelve
men. As he had no guns aboard and
as the craft was slow saiIer he order
ed out the longboat, and everybody got
into her, and the Snow was abandoned.
The pirates chased the longboat for a
couple of hours, but as the wind was
light they could not come up with her.
Then they returned to pick up the
Snow. She was loaded with slaves
and lumber, and there was little or
nothing aboard of her the fellows could
make use of. They dared not set fire
to her, and the holes bored in her bot
tom only waterlogged her. A cat and
parrot were left aboard, and in re-
venge the pirates tortured the cat to
death and hung the parrot to one of the
beams of the cabin.
AS the longboat, with Josiah Marsh
and his crew aboard, ran down through
the Mona passage they met the British
frigate Courier and gave her the news.
They had left the pirate craft forty
miles behind them, but the Englishman
was prompt to go in search. The Amer
leans asked that they might be taken
aboard and serve until the Black Devil
was destroyed, and their request was
complied with.
In spirit of bravado the pirate cap
tain had entered her capture on the log
and had added that he should cruise
for week between Porto Rico and
Barbados. Accident had changed his
plans, however. AS his craft lay along
side the Snow their rigging became en-
tangled, and the Black Devil had her
fore topmast sprung. She came to an
Choir under TIE lee of one of the Virgin
islands to repair damages and had just
got all autanto when the Courier hove
in sight.
The Englishman knew that he must
disguise his ship if he wished to get
near the Spaniard. As he took up the
pursuit he began to overhaul his top
hamper, and after few hours the
smart frigate looked as slovenly as any
merchantmen afioat The pirate let
herself be overhauled to within mile
before she flew the black flag, and as
the emblem fioated to the masthead she
fired the first gun. She mounted twelve
guns and had crew of 11S men. The
frigate mounted twenty-four guns and
a crew of 40.
1t was not many minutes before the
pirate found that he had been tricked.
He would then have got away, but the
breeze fell, and he was under the guns
of the Courier. The ONLY thing to the
credit of the Black Devil was the fight
she made against superior force. Cap
ture meant the halter, and for four
long hours the pirates stood up to their
work. At the end of that time they
had lost eighty men, half their guns
were dismounted, and the brig had
been hulled so often that there was
five feet of water in her hold. She was
still fighting when the frigate ran her
aboard and poured fifty men on her
decks. In ten minutes they had pos
session.
Little of value was found aboard the
brig, as she had just returned to her
cruising ground, but many of the ar
ticles removed are to be found in the
British museum today. She was regu-
larly fitted out with stock of imple-
ments of torture Between decks there
was a large caldron set in brickwork
and close by stock of seven barrels
of oil. She had thumbscrews by the
dozen, spiked boots, the racks and
benches used in the inquisition, and in
deed nothing was lacking in the tor
ture line.
Only twenty-eight men of the pirates
Among them was her fourth or fifth
captain, whose name was Alvarez. He
was man of thirty, and greater
fiend never lived. He was the last
man to give in and was so severely
wounded that for some days it was
question whether he would live or die.
The brig was so badly knocked about
that she foundered, and the frigate
landed the pirates in Jamaica for trial.
They were staggering, Boosting, de-
fiant lot Not one of them would turn
kings evidence, nor did any fear death
In cold blood, and knowing they
would be used against them, the cap
tain, mate and several of the crew
made statements which held them up
as veritable devils. The captain had
only engaged in two captures, and both
vessels We're English. One had crew
of fifteen and the other of eighteen
men. lie boosted that every man had
been Tortured to death and that some
of them had lived six hours after their
torture commenced. He said that with
his own hand he had cut off the ears,