The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-07-12
Continued from last Sunday.


Frontera, Mexico,
October %. 1908.
We arrived off Frontera bar. in a
dead calm, at 10 o'clock yesterday
morning. after an uneventful run
from Coatazacoalcos OF about fifteen
hours.
We had only few passengers
Among these were Mrs. Douglas and
the Tenderfoot and the Two Burg
lars. I noticed that the two latter
frequently exchanged satisfied wInks
but they still continued TO guard the
Tenderfoot with ali the care that par
ents bestoW upon an only child, and
sickly at that.
suppose by this time they've skin
ned him.
Black Princess. With my Florida
training, it certainly looked funny 70
see lot of white men running around
and waiting on a colOrcd girl.
We transferred to 4 shallow draft
tug and landed at the Customhouse
wharf in Frontera. six miles from the
gulf, about noon. Thirteen days from
Pensacola.
Frontera is on the Tabasco river.
The river Is deep and swift, and fully
as wide as the Mississippi is at Cairo,
Our tug crawled up the river, within
fifty feet Of the shore The shores
are low and a solid jungle, and are
alive with monkeys and tropical birds
and things that we could hear but
could not see.
Our consul Consular agent, rather)
and my captain and crew were on the
customhouse wharf. The Richard A.
Bingham" lay alongside a wharf. a lit
tie further upstream. She looked.
even at a distance, woefully neglect
ed. but there was not line spar
missing, AND l WAS GLAD TO SEE
HER.
From then until now 7 have spent
in Investigating the trouble and try
ing to find out what the exact situa-
ton is now. Tomorrow / will con-
slider various plans for getting out of
the mess, and the next day l will go
a it.
The following are some Of the dis
gushing details leading up to the pres
ent situation.
Shortly after leaving Pensacola on
August 18th. loaded with lumber and
bound for Belize, fully manned. and
provisioned as usual for that voyage
for two months-the schooner ran
into bad weather that lasted for two
weeks.
The captain says it was a hurri-
cane. but l do not believe it: Hurri-
canes do not last two weeks. and
vessels that encounter gulf hurricanes
(even new, staunch vessels like the
''R1chard'), II they I'VE through IT,
show the scars in the shape OF torn
sails. broken spars, twisted rails and
srna shed boats.
The most that 7 Will admit is that
she encountered three or four heavy
southeast gales (shOWn by our wealth
err serv.Ce). which she was built to
weather and which she did weather.
The continued bad weather was dis
couragins. The crew got downheart-
ed. The captain, a dead-reckoning
navigator Observation-Disclosures his
higher pretensions-lost all track of
the ships position, and was weak in
handling his men.
Finally tie weather cleared and
day or two later high mountains were
sighted off to the westward
According to the crew the captain
cried out:
Thank God, There are the noun
tains back of Belize"
But shortly after this they fell in
with a Pasca goula schooner who in
formed them the aforementioned
mountains were back of Vera Cruz
and that Belize was SOME SEVEN
HUNDRED MILES TO WINDWARD!
In view of their recent buffeting,
and with such proof before them of
the captains inCompetency as d nav
igator, I guess that seven hundred
miles looked like seven thousand, or
like eternity. and with mutiny