THE FATE OF A SLAVE SHIP IT THE GULF OF GUINEA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3004, 20 June 1893, Page 1

THE FATE OF A SLAVE SHIP IT THE GULF OF GUINEA.

Drifting for Day* Within Em? Beach. *i • Cargo of Negroes and Obliged to Sup* ply Them with Water—Saved by fc - Hurricane. [Copyright, 1893, by Charles B. Lewis.] It was in the fifties, betore steamers bad superseded the great Australian Unerf and the big ships plying between England and India. I was a midshipman onboard an India packet called the Sea King. Tie) difference between a midshipman, s>jr called, and an apprentice lay in the fad that the former were petty officers and learned navigation and seamanship froift the quarter deck, while the latter. wer% fo'castle bands and helped to perform tbfck actual work. Our ship carried three mid* shipmen, and our respective fathers hs4 to pay a smart sum to place us where w% were. .■:■ - « I At that time the running of slave catgoes from the coast of Africa was confined solely to the Arabs and the Cubans, with now and then a cargo for some South American port. We left Calcutta with about 170 passengers, and of this number there were about fifty army officers. Somfe had resigned on account of wounds or ill health; others were on furlough, and other! still had been exchanged into home regi* merits. There was also a party of fiver sportsmen who had been "doing" the jungles of India, for two or three years. At Cape Town we took on board thirty moro passengers, and among them was another party of sportsmen who had been up tp the lion country. We must have had a full hundred men among the passengers when we left the cape. ~ Nothing out of the routine occurred until we were well above St. Caul de t<6* • anda and half way across the Ctalf of Guinea. Then we raised a sail dead ahead; which was standing to the west, having evidently come out from the coast. We were within four miles of her when the, breeze, which bad been light all the morning, died flat out and left both draft heaving on a glassy sea. Out Officers had given the stranger a sharp looking over; and it was the unanimous opinion that she was a suspicious character. She was a topsail schooner, painted a grayish white and having a great spread of canvas, and when Mr. Grayson, the chief officer, canle down from aloft, after a long inspectioh through the glasa, he said to Captain, Hobson: "I've seen twenty of the Cuban 'blackbirds' in my time, and if she's not loaded . with slaves, then I'm a blind man. 1' The captain agreed that she was a slaver. England, as you perhaps know, did more to suppress the slave trade than all other nations combined. She had five cruisers to one off the African coast, and she overhauled five times as many craft as any other nation. But for her efforts very little would have been accomplished at sen. As soon as the strange craft was pronounced a slaver there was great indignation among our passengers, a majority of the men being anxious to go off in the small boats and capture her. This project did not meet with the views of our captain at all. While he would like to have seen her a prize to a cruiser, he had no notion of interfering with her movements. , I heard him say to a Major Shaw, who was anxious to lead an expedition, that the schooner was doubtless armed with cannon and carried a large crew, and that any interference with her would be a , serious matter. Nobody dreamed of the calm which wa« to follow, although our position was dose to the equator. It was summer time in those latitudes, but not oppressively hot Not the slightest movement of aif was felt for the rest of the day, and at? passed the day so passed the night. Next morning it was seen that the two crafts were nearer together by half a mile or more. There are writers who call this movement of becalmed vessels magnetism. ttlssLn^ ply their drift. The larger one drifts thfc fastest, and had we been to the north of the schooner the distance would have beeft increased by half a mile, as both of us were drifting to the north in an ocean current After breakfast Major Shaw wanted to pull off to the unknown on some sort of errand and thus settle her identity, but Captain Hobson was firm in his refusal. Indeed, as he surveyed the horizon andcon^ suited the glass and satisfied himself that the calm was to continue, he grew uneasy. All day the Sea King rose and fell on thb, glassy ground swells with the regularity of a pendulum, and when night came w* were within a couple of miles of th« schooner.' The glasses brought her so&eat that every detail could be noted. Everything about her showed that she was bnjlk Mid fitted out for speed. Only nine or ted, -■ ■* could be counted for her crew, and mci* *ounged about as honest sailors they i.. -. r the circumstances. That she would unuv gun amidships we did not had a Long lx. ~ it w as covered in from, doubt, although ■> were also good reaactual sight. Thert, * Q e carried other, sons to believe that _ number of men metal as well, and that the. ">l{ represent seen on her decks did not hu. *'« second her crew. On the evening of ttu v<«sQnday the captain and mate held a lon*, *^ v sultation, and as a result passenger alt. passenger was Invited into the captaLu'ji room, and he said to each one in turn: "The strange craft is a slaver and has a cargo aboard. In order to carry as many negroes as possible they figure does on fresh water. If this calm continues another day we shall have a visit from him. lean spare him a couple of casks, but not more. Those may do him; if not he will attempt to take a supply by force. We have no cannon, but we can raise at least 100 firearms among us, and I propose to fight him off." When daylight came the drift of the ships had shortened the distance again.v_ The slaver did not look to be over half a mile away, but her actual distance was three times that figure. The sentinels had heard queer noises from her direction after midnight, and our people figured thai they had bad gangs of negroes on deck at intervals, and had sluiced water over those in the hold to save them as much as possible. If there had been any doubt of her calling, the odor which came to us about sunrise would have dispelled It. Many could not detect it, but there were at least twenty aboard who got the smell, though not the slightest breath of air was stirring. The odor of a cargo of blacks is something horrible. On one occasion, after the capture of an Arab dhow by a British cruiser. I was on a ship which crossed their wake five miles astern, and yet we got the odor so strong that some of the men were made slok. After breakfast the captain requested all passengers to promenade the decks, knowing that the slaver was inspecting us through his glasses and desiring to present a bold front to him. It was to be another day without a puff of air and muoh hotter than the preceding ones. It was 10 o'clock when we saw them lower a small boat from the stern of the schooner andjour^

men enter her. She came pulling at a smart pace and stopped a few yards away off our starboard quai'ter. "Hello! the ship!" called the man in the stern sheets as he stood up. '. "Hello! the boat!" replied Captain Hobsou. "We are short of water in the schooner anil hope you can spare us a few casks." "What's your cargo?" "Gold dust, palm oil, ivory and furs. We have been up the Niger for several months on a trading voyage. We are bound for the United States." The speaker was certainly an American, but the three men with him were Spaniards, and as villainous a trio as you ever set eyes on. They brought the odor with them so strong that every nose could now detect it. Captain Hobson was a blunt spoken man. After a bit of thinking he replied: "I am satisfied that your schooner is a Cuban slaver and that she has a cargo aboard of her now. It's a villainous trade you are engaged in, and I'd like to see every mother's son of you swinging at the yardarml However, out of pity for the poor blacks I'll spare you three casks. I can't do more. Go back to your craft and I'll hoist them out and tow them half way." "And about the pay?" "Your money is accursed and I wont handle it!" The man forced a laugh, waved bis hat as a salute and his boat returned to the schooner. We got over the casks, lowered a boat and* towed them half a mile away, and before noon they had been hoisted in on the schooner's deck. "It isn't a quart apiece for the thirsty peopleaboard of her," I heard the captain say to Mayor Shaw, "and if this calm holds we are bound to have a row with that fellow." The fourth day of the calm passed quietly away. When night came it was figured that we hnd decreased our distance by a quarter of a mila. That night, to keep up appearances of a bold front, there was music and dancing on the deck, but while some danced others peered into the darkness and guarded against a surprise. The fifth morning dawned without a cloud or a breath of air, and we were now within less than a mile of the schooner. The current was setting us both to the northeast, or upon the coast. As I said before, being the larger body we were drifting the fastest, and in a couple of days more must overtake the schooner. On this day, just before noon, the slaver began drawing water and sluicing down his cargo, and we could plainly hear the shouts and yells of the negroes. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon he allowed them to come on deck in gangs, and we knew that we should shortly hear from him again. His situation had become so desperate as to oblige him to throw off all reserve. It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon when the same boat and the same officer approached-us as before. "You see what our cargo is, captain," said the man as he stood up and pointed to his craft. "The schooner is a 'blackbird' and has 320 niggers aboard. Not one has died yet, but there isn't a drop of water left for them. You must spare us more *vater, or not one of them will ever see Cuba." Our captain was about to reply that not another pint could be spared, but the passengers appealed to his sympathies and a sort of public meeting was held. We had wines, rum, brandy, beer, and could certainly spare more water without stinting ourselves. Sooner than see the blacks sacrificed everybody was willing to go on half allowance. The result was that we made up about 350 gallons of a mixture of rum and water, and the slaver towed the casks away. As soon as darkness came the deep sea lead was cast and bottom was found at 180 feet.' Hawsers were bent to a coupl3 of small anchors, and we soon had the satisfaction of knowing that our drift was checked. The dawn of the sixth day showed the schooner not more than a mile away. The fellows had got on to our trick and adopted it very promptly. The day passed quietly away, the slaver sluicing his between decks and parading his gangs as before. At daybreak on the morning of the 7th the barometer indicated a change, but sky and sea gave no evidence of it. About sunrise the blacks could be heard raising a row, probably demanding water, and an hour later the pivot gun, whose presence We had suspected, was uncovered and loaded and pointed at us. At the same time three ports were opened and the muzEles of three smaller cannon run out and trained on our ship. The slaver's crew also increased from ten to twenty-five men, and we realized that a climax was at hand. They proposed to save their own cargo at any risk. The officer who had visited us twice before now appeared for the third time, having the same three villains at the oars. He said they were again out of water and must have a supply. He did not ask if any more could be spared, but commanded Captain llobson to hoist out ten casks on penalty of being fired into. To the surprise of everybody, the captain humbly agreed and called out to the fellow: "Send all the men you can spare and make a short job of it, but I want none of you aboard!" The boat returned to the schooner, and half an hour later three boats, each containing five men, were lying off our quarter. We had meanwhile been pretending to be very busy. The pretense was maintained after their arrival. One cask was hoisted out and drifted clear, and they were looking for a second when the sun was suddenly blotted out of sight. Night seemed to come again, and a white squall broke with the scream of a thousand locomotives.- It was the forerunner of a hurricane, which swept us up to Cape Vera find 500 miles beyond. Not one of the boats reached the schooner. The craft herself flew away before us into the thickness, but half an hour later, when the sky cleared before the hurricane, not an eye could discover her. She had gone down with all on board.