The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-04
15OO-MILE VOYAGE
ON A PLAGUE SHIP
Skipper Kept His Nerve When
Smallpox Broke Out
WIFE AND BOYS
Vaccinated Wife and Boys-Some Ne
gro Hands Died; Others Worked
the Craft-still After Whales
in Southern Waters.

From the New York World.
The story of Yankee shippers nerve
came to town yesterday. 1t was told by
Mrs. M. F. Haggerty, the shippers wife,
who arrived with their little sons. eight
and ten years old, on the steamship Ital-
ian Prince, from Rio de Janero. Mrs.
Haggerty is a wholesome ruddy checked
young woman. She spoke of the thrilling
incidents of the voyage as calmly as the
average woman would tell of a shopping
trip.
My husband" said Mrs. Haggerty' is
master of the brig Sullivan. We left New
Bedford last May on whaling voyage
that was to last three years. When we
arrived at Fayab in the Azores, twenty OF
the men before the mast told Captain
Haggerty that they wanted to go home.
They weren't good for much anyhow.
My husband let them go and signed on
twenty Fayal negroes in their places
This left us with only half a dozen white
men forward We cruised south for two
months, far down near Cape Horn, but
we only got one small whale.
zone of the negro hands complained of
being sick early in August, and next day
one of the men came aft to see my hus-
band
That man has the smallpox, Cap
tain he said. We have lots of 1t at
Fayal
My husband sent the man forward in
a hurry.
You and the children he said to
me, will have to stay well aft Keep
abaft the mainmast as long as the small
poX lasts
aThen my husband went forward and
uuarantined the negro crew, giving them
orders not to come aft of the foremost.
The white men he brought aft, because
they had not been exposed to the small
pox conditions at Fayal Captain Hag-
gerty found that three of the white men
had had smallpox, and he put them in
charge of nursing the sick. Seven OF
the Fayal negroes were down with the
smallpox.
I'm searching the medicine chest my
husband found a dozen quilts of vac
cine virus With these he vaccinated
me. the children and the white men VINO
had not had smallpox lie Vaccinated
himself with the last quill The negroes
were mortally afraid of vaccination any
how
1--WE we're 1000 miles from Buena Vista,
Brazil the nearest port. The Sullivan Is
forty years old and not very fast. we
we're in the doldrums, too, and 1t TOOK
us more than two weeks to make port.
AS we came into the harbor with the
yellow flag flying the people were panic
stricken. They wouldn't let any one from
the ship go ashore, but they gave us a
supply of medicine. They had no nos
pital, so we had to start for Rio DE
Janeiro, 500 miles away.
Up to this time the negroes had done
fairly well, but on the first day out one
of the men died. Within an hour the
body was sent overheard After the
death the negroes were SO frightened
that it was very hard to make them
turn to and work the ship.
Another man died on the second day
out The negroes were more scared than
ever, but my husband kept them under
control. BY this time four of the sick
hands were able to be up and about, and
that helped a good deal. At the end of
a week we arrived at Rio, and our
troubles were over.
when the plague had been stamped
! out my husband shipped a few Brazil
ians and Norwegians, had the ship thor
oughly fumigated, and started south
again for more whales The children and
| l took passage for home on this ship y
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