Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1917-03-15
Story of FIorence's Cruise In
West Indies Is Stranger
Than Fiction.
VESSELS FLEE At APPROACH
Islands In Panic as Swift French Boat
Puts in at Their Ports-"captured"
by an Allied Warship as She
Reaches Her Destination.

Florence. sold to French owners, ter
British merchantmen flee from her be-
cause they thought she was Prussian
raider, was told In graphic language
by her commander Capt. John Triton,
when he called at the New York Her
aid Ship News office on his return to
this city.
All unwittingly the Florence, on her
way from this port to Martinique,
where she was turned over to her new
owners, was responsible for much per-
turbation on the part of many mer-
chant vessels, according to Captain
Triton, and caused hearts in French
and British West Indian ports to skip
several beats when her rakish form
was sighted. The captains story lays
ut rest the ghost of the mysterious
raider that was reported cruising in
the West Indies.
Stranger Than Fiction.
The story of the Florence's trip
reads like the widest of fiction. One
merchantmen who sighted her off Cape
Hatteras almost ran on the shoals in
her efforts to avoid the speedy craft {;
the governor of Nassau was convinced
that she entered that port for n sinis-
ter purpose; the French consul ut
Puerto Plata denounced her as Prus-
sian raider, and when she finally
dashed into the harbor of Fort de
France, her designation, she narrowly
escaped being blown out of the water
by shore batteries and the guns of the
French cruiser Jeanne dare.
To understand the story Of the Flor
ence one must begin at the beginning.
Built In 1908, by Lewis Nixon, ut the
Crescent ship yards, Elizabethtown, N.
j., and christened the Czarina, she was
sold some years later to John c. Eaton
Of Toronto, Canada, and renamed the
Emeline. At the outbreak of the war
she was turned over by him for the use
of the Canadian coast guard, and once
more rechristened, this time the Flor
ence. She was sold short time ago
to the Societe Generate de Transports
of Martinique, French concern,
which was to place her in the freight
service in the West Indies. She came
from Canada to New York, and was
refitted for her new service, leaving
this port under command of Captain
Triton and crew of Is on January 8.
From the time she left New York,
Captain Triton said, she met nothing
but heavy weather. The Florence
went slamming through the ruck at q
good clip. for Captain Triton had or.
ders to deliver her as soon as posi-
BILE. On January II she made Hamp
ton Roads. Leaving there the next
day she ran into her first adventure
She passed Hatteras that night, and
according to Captain Triton, went in
side the light vessel. A merchantmen
going the same way also was passing
inside.
| Merchantmen Flees.
AS the yacht, logging good II
knots, came racing through the heavy
seas, with occasional flames squirting
from her funnel, the merchantmen
turned inshore in an effort to get ou
of her way and make the three-milt
limit. She was almost in the shoal.
before she turned out again. BY tina
time the Florence was we'll by.
The Florence made Nassau, Bahia
mas, and on her arrival those aboart
saw a great disturbance on shore. Sol
diers could be seen assembling, an,
when the captain went ashore he foun,
an automobile awaiting him. He wa
} hurried to the home Of the governor
and there underwent four hours o
gruelling before he could make the au
thorities believe that he was only wha
he had represented himself to be.
IF you had come in ut night" h
said the governor told him. "you woul
have caused a riot"
IF I had come in I would hav
played my searchlight on the port,
Triton said he replied, and the GOV
ernor told him If he had there prot
ably would have been an exodus frOr
che town.
On January % the yacht touched 8
Great Inagua.
On the way from there the Florenc
passed between Tortuga island an
Porto Paix, on the mainland of Hayt
passing through the funnel-like strait
with an 85-mlle gale behind her. Cal
tain Triton said that once In IL
straits he could not turn back IN
could only keep his vessel going befol
the wind, with all the steam he coul
crowd on, to give her steerage wa
She made Agul bay with difficulty, ha
ing no pilot, and went bowling throue
the reefs at a great rate. with two Lac
In the chains sounding. Captain Trl
ton was able to bring her In to safe
without incident.
II Makes for Cap" Hatien.
II From there the Florence made f
Cape Hatien. meeting ON the way Il
Dutch steamship Orange Nassau. ,
her way to this port. Captain Tritt'