Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-12-26
ROMANCE OF SEAS AS FASCINATING
 TODAY AS EVER
Little Florida Coasters Find Profit in Supplying Ships
 of War.
(By Sidney Espey.)

Washington, Dec. 25.-Peoplc who
 think that romance left the seven seas With the advent of steam would re- Vlse their notions could they but peep into the official records, guarded i'll various and sundry governmental of 1lces at Washington, bearing cn the i activities of the sailing and steaming
 craft that periodically tied up at the ports along the Florida coast.
 These records would show that not Bartholomew Portuguese, not Sir Will liam Phipps, not Captain Kidd nor ev-
 on Saxon Teach himself ever led
 more romantic seafaring existence
 than the sly ship captains who these
 days know the sharks of the Florida Keys well enough to address them by their first names. Nor was the treas
 ure-fnding, treasure-capt pturing and treasure buying business of the older days any more fascinating than the business being carried along by these Florida coast worthies.
 Captain Camden, captain of the coast
 guard cutter Miami, stationed tt Key West, Fla, can tell you about them. He, perhaps, better than any other
 government official, knows the Florida l coast. In the various files of tie de.
 partment of the treasury, war, navy and justice there are reports that read
 as sniritedly as Treasure Island. The principal business of the Flori- da coast men is the sending of arms and ammunition to Mexico. Since the European war broke out, however, q
 new and equally interesting activity has been added. That is the sending out from the coast of small vessels to bear miscellaneous supplies to ships of war lying off the coast, outside of the three mile limit. This, of course, is violation of American neutrality laws. but good prices are paid when the task is difficult and people seem never to have entirely left off doing unlawful things for good prices
 The most renowned fil!bustering craft of the whole Florida fleet now has retired from that business and is pursuing a useful and honest exist ence in the employ of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock con- pany. She was the Dauntless, z, sea-
 going tug, built for speed and for with standing almost any sea, for a fili- busterer cannot put into the first in- viting cove or port i'll storm He
 must go only where he knows safety lies. The Dauntless has figured III so! many filibustering expeditions, snug
 gling jobs and various other romantic
 activities that there is scarcely man on the coast who can remember her
 whole history.
 Another interesting craft is the
 Lucy H., trim schooner, hailing from
 Pensacola She is on a little vacation
 now, the department of justice having
 slapped a libel on her for little job
 involving the republic of Mexico and the rifles and cartridges that annoy
 that same political division. HoWev-
 CT. the Lucy H. is staunch ship and
 expects to be busy again. Then there
 is the Isadora. She has been ;ibeled
 by half a dozen nations from Which
 and against which she has figured In filibustering expeditions.
 The Ventura is a neat vessel, With good spread of canvas for the trades
 when they blow but with auxiliary gasoline power, so that calm VIII not leave her at the mercy of the revenue cutters. There are many more o1 them. so many in fact, that they could he described as too numerous to men, ton.
 Little is heard of all these escapades nationally, because the federal author ities pursue policy of assisting. ln the apprehension of lawbreakers along the coast and then turn the arrested persons and ships over to the Florida
 state authorities to be dealt with. But every Washington official who has had anything to do with the Florida coast ship captains agrees that they are not