Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-08-05
HAD GREAT CAREER
Matanzas vJas Some Sea Rover
in Former Days
Yankee 6arkentIne Which Went Down
Recently in Storm OF Bermuda
Had Been War Prize and q
smuoaIer.

New York.-The old Yankee barker.
tine Matanzas, which has succumbed
to the god of storms In her twenty
sixth year, had Q picturesquely adven-
turous career. She had more bad luck
and more good luck than almost any
other vessel along the coast. She left
Newport News for Cadiz on her last
voyage. and nobody thought anything
could sink her.
A hundred miles to the eastward of
Bermuda she ran into heavy gales that
plucked out her masts She houn.
dered, her cargo of COAL, 400 tons
shifted, and Capt. E. H. Nuss and his
crew Of nine had just time to leap into
the long boat.
On the second day in the drifting
longboat death took his first victim.
All hands bailed night and day. Ten
days were passed in that unspeakable
longboat without food or fresh water.
At the rate of about man day they
persisted. The absence of their weight
-providentially, perhaps. for Captain
Nuss-made the boat more buoyant.
Four men died on the fifth day and
three on the ninth.
Then the schooner Bayard Barnes
rescued those that were left, Captain
Nuss, the steward of the lost Matan-
zas and one sailor They were taken
to hospital In Para. Captain Nuss
left the two men in the hospital at
Para. He came here on the steamer
Rio de Janeiro and has gone to his
Connecticut home.
This vessel was an unofficial snug
gler, prize OF war, tanker (molasses,
water or oil, according to charter),
blockade runner, mail packet In time
of war and drogher. She was re-
paired and re-repaired, rebuilt, refas-
tened, new spared, new rugged, sur
veyed and specially surveyed, and was
still good risk.
Bill Rogers, the shipbuilder of Bath,
did an honest job when he showed
overheard the Matanzas. During the
Spanish war w. D. Munson & Co.
owned her, and she was once sailing
packet between Havana and New
York.
Before the Munsons owned her she
carried clandestine cigars, which,
however, were handled by her thrifty
crews, not by her owners. A sailor
who had growl because he was left
out of the speculation gave away the
smugglers to the collector He said
she brought In $4,000 cigars at a
time. Her mate was caught trying to
smuggle cigars ashore, and in the
galley were more smokes within a pot
Of beans.
Two years before the Spanish war
she had been equipped with tanks of
10000 gallons capacity for bringing
molasses. She never stopped going
light to Cuba on account Of any war
at least, she didn't wait for war to be
declared before staying home.
In the early stages of the conflict
in Cuban waters the Atlantic fleet
had to turn back the Matanzas to save
her hide. So when she got along to
about the latitude of Key West and
found that Admiral Sampson wanted
fresh water, what more appropriate
than that she should take a govern.
ment charter to carry. Schuylkill
water from Philadelphia to the fleet?
Next she fitted out as a mail ship to
carry code dispatches from Florida for
the Cuban revolutionists. On her first
trip in this new character she bore
Joaquin ,Aloina, the representative in
Costa RIGA of the Cuban party, land
ing him safely on Cuban soil.
Pendleton Bros. were her next own.
ers. The epileptic of the coast was
next reported flying signals of dis
tress while making a trip from Bruins
wick, Ga, to Philadelphia.
On another trip she lost her rudder
off Body's island on her way from
Wilmington, N. G., for New York.
Again she Mad to display off the North
Carolina coast in her rudderless state
the familiar signal. Again they were
needed by the faithful policeman, On.
ondaga, which gathered her in, towing
her safely inside Cape Henry.