The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1913-02-07

v the international limelight plays
on the doughty American Now
he energies from the obscurity of his
recent years in troubled Turkey and
is revealed as the head strategist of
the Ottoman fleet in the sea battles
with the Greeks.
Rover and adventurer all his life,
boy captain Of a whaleback on the
great lakes, later commander Of YES
sells plying between New York, Bos-
ton and Baltimore, chief navigator Of
big steamships on the Pacific ocean,
Bucknam became firm favorite Of
the cruel and tickle Abdul Hamid who
made him admiral Of the Turkish
navy. But being Yankee from Buck
sport, and when Abdul was over
thrown, refused to accept the ultima
tum from the new Sultan, Mohammed
v, that he swear allegiance to the
Ottoman flag and become subject OF
Abdul's successor.
Bucknam Pasha was ace-high with
the young Turks and also strong with
the old Abdul Hamid supporters, but
he quit the Turkish service rather
than become a Turkish subject. But
his restless, constructive mind was
not to be curbed, and it has just be-
come known that he Is now sort of
John D. Rockefeller and William c.
Whitney in Constantinople. He OBJ
tanned concessions in oil lands as we'll
as in street railway routes. and his
friends in New York have learned
that he has begun to pile up big
fortune.
1t was to Buchanan, now an oil mag
nate and traffic expert, that the
Turks turned when the Greeks began
to threaten the Dardanelles with their
squadron. When the Ottomans made
a desperate and dashing sortie and in
attacking and driving off the Greeks
followed tactical plan of unusual
skill, the Greeks were astonished.
Only when their spies inside Constan.
tinople reported. did the besiegers un-
derstand what had happened. 1t was
Bucknam Pasha, the down east Yam
kee, who drew up the elaborate plan!
During the battle he watched and ad-
vised by wireless from the heights be-
hind Fort Kun Kaleh.
American Brain Won Out.
Bucknam couldn't keep out of it.
He owed much to his Turkish friends,
gwen thuugh under a. new regime
And although not in active command,
1t was an American brain that fur
nished the strategy Of what Turks
hailed as brilliant naval achieve
ment.
But Bucknam doesn't need any
three-sheet advertising on the bill
boards of the world He Is forty-nine
years old, hard as steel and shrewd
as a storekeeper at the four corners
in his native state. He Is short, broad
as he is long, undershot java regu-
lar human bulldog 1t was lucky fate
for him that Mohammed V. tried to
force him to give up his American
citizenship. Otherwise he might not
have had the opportunity to develop
as the chief explorer of some of the
most valuable petroleum resources Of
the Ottomans.
Buchanan has the rights in three
important oil centers in European and
Asiatic Turkey. His opportunity Is
a wonderful one, because Turkey has
In the past imported 400,0O0,OO0 gal
Ions Of oil from Russia, Roumania and
America every year. Bucknam's An
glo-American syndicate owns enough
oil land to supply not only the wants
of Turkey but to export large quaint.
ties to foreign countries. An fmpor-
tant source of his supply is the region
of Merfofito, port near Rodosto on
the European shore Of the Sea of Mar
mora. He has negotiated the exploit
tation of $4,000 acres of this oil land
by British company capitalized at
100000. Bucknam Pasha also con-
trolls 100000 acres of oil-producing ter
ritory near the northeast shore Of
Lake Van in Eastern Asia Minor, and
another $4,000 acres about 80 miles
south of Trebizond, the chief Turk
ish port of the Black Sea. The oil
found on the Buchanan possessions ex-
cells the Russian product as fine
paraffine oil, and also is three to FIVE
days nearer the European markets.
This Is the new phase Of an amazing
career that Bucknam has now entered.
His life has been replete with bold
adventure that finally took him into
strange service in strange country.
His exploits began young.
Early Fendness for the Ocean.
When Bucknam's father died at sea
the lad vas fourteen and his old grand.
father gave him the choice between
farming and the seafaring life. Young
Buchanan had an instructive love for
the old ocean, love that helped him
to pick up the knowledge of a ship
with little effort. His first venture
was made on the great lakes as cabin
boy aboard schooner, OF which the
captain was also the owner. The cap
,ain's wife took fancy to the young.
tter, and ultimately they adopted him
When he was sixteen Bucknam sail.