New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-25
RED CROSS MUTTNY
QUELLED AT SEA
Crew in Five Days Riot
Master-at-Arms Proves
Hero of Voyage.
"CHEF HIT ON BEAN
WITH BELAYIN' PIN"
So Runs Diary Of Kovarik, Who
Also Had Things Bounced
OF His Head"

Mutiny-a day-snd-night Ave weeks
/ symphony In carving knives, Delaying
pins. rsvolvers and hying hsts. with
! plenty Of stowswsys and pitched bat
/ ties. In which at times the passenger
/ feared the crew would Join forces and
/ take possession Of the ship--waG the
story officers OF the Red Cross, which
| left this port on September II with
doctors and nurses for the European
war, told when they arrived here yes
terdRy.
-Four Of the mutinssrs lay IN the brig
+ In irons. They will be handed over to
United States shipping commissioner
under n charge Of mutiny preferred by
Captain Armistead Rust, u. 8. NJ, nsvi'
eating officer of the ship.
! A score of Irish oilers and West Ind
( ian coal pRssers are nursing wounds
from Are bars and knives, and Emil
Kovarik, the giant msster-at-arme. who
WAS hero Of the voyage, occasionally
rubs his scalp, where two OF the mutt
neers bounced Delaying pins OF mis-
head"
/ The jollity aboard the Red Cross waI
| the result of the discharge of the Ger
man crew which worked the ship when
she was the Hamburg. To fill their
places shipping agents in desperation
rounded up everything along the water
front that looked like a sailor. Ne
groes and mixed breeds we're put
! aboard, and the Red Cross left port on
time.
Before Scotland Light was left be-
hind Captain Rust began TO pick souve-
Mrs OF the discharged German crew
out of the machinery. Every pump and
] 81 fetn rati IN O
plant was out of commission, and II
FIRE had broken out at any time during
the first three days the ship woult
have been doomed The riots, however
did not begin until September %, wher
William Babe, one of the forty-thre'
negroes aboard, refused 10 serve hi
table in the saloon and was found or
ganiZing a strike" among the pantr!
negroes.
The purser went 10 Babe and asked
him what he meant by his actions. b.
way Of answer the black poked thu
business end of revolver against thu
purser's stomach and told him 10 "bea
IT," Kovarik, the masters alarms, thei
showed what kind of stuff he was mad'
Of by walking unarmed up to Babe
knocking him down and out and stow
ing him away in the hold. When th'
negro revived he found himself il
irons.
From then on there was continue
fighting among the crew until Octobe
g. That day James Torrez ran through
the stokehole, armed with a butcher
knife, with the intention of cleaning
out the whole force single handed
Kovarik went down into the hole. car
rying with him a Delaying pin. In
few minutes tho trouble was all owe
and Torrez was safely slowed ava!
along with Bsde.
On October J. Larkin. an oiler. "hi
chef on bean with belayin' pin" accord
ing to diary Kovsrik kept. On tn
18th James Drain, a negro, becam
Jealous of the attentions of a woman
steward TO one of the irishmen, caugh
her in a companionway and choke'
her. IL was on the 18th that Coffee an,
Jackson bounced" the Delaying pin
off Kovsrik's head.
The biggest fight took place on tn
night OF October 10 at Rotterdam. Dsl
O'Brien, an oiler, returned with won
derful Dutch jag" according to Kova
rik. went below decks and started I,
drive the negro part of the crew off tn
ship. Fellow Irishmen pitched in, am
for more than an hour the Red Cross
decks were a maelstrom of fighting
cursing men. Koyarik and the petit.
officers broke il up.
While the Red Cross was en- rout
from Psuillac TO Rotterdam il wa.
stopped by a French torpedo boat of
Cherbourg and warned that a mine fell
stretched clear across the Channel. !
pilot came aboard and guided the -hiI
through the mine field, the airtigh
compartments all closed, boats swing
ing from davits and life belts laid out