The Destruction of Ships by Infernal Machines.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 124, 29 May 1886, Page 5

The Destruction of Ships by Infernal Machines.

Dubing the last few months of the Secession War Nassau was the favourite resort of many blockade runners, ac it lay so near the coast of Florida. It had then become more difficult to pass the Federal blockading squadrons, even at Wilmington ; and it was for this reason that Captain Martin decided to have hie two echoonere, late in 1864, make the voyage to Nassau, rather than to sail for the Bermudas, aa we had done the preceding spring.

Captain Martinj when a prominent tradesman of Baltimore, in the ante bellum times, had so often made voyages in tho capacity of supercargo, that he was quite an expert sailor, and was for that reason willing to take more risks in the hazards of blockade-running than a mere landsman would have been. As he was obliged to go to Nassau himself to look after their proper dispoeal, his family did everything in their power to dissuade him from risking a trip in either of the schooners, aa he haddone the previous spring. They wished him to go by steamer from Halifax, as he could readily have done, and with greater security. But in spite of all entreaties, he persisted in taking passage on one of the Bchooners. Ho placed marine insurance on their cargoes; in which he had invested all his moans, and had a handsome insurance on his life for the benefit of his family. Before sailing from Halifax he took the precaution to leave all his insurance papers in the hands of a man whom he trusted as he would trust abrother, and give him full power of attorney to act for him in his absence, or in the event of his death. Both of his sohooners sailed at the same time.

One of Them was Wreoked

near the shore, before it was outside of the harbour of Halifax. Vessels and cargo were a total loss, though the crew wae saved. Neither the schooner on which Captain Martin eailed, nor any soul on board, was ever heard of afterwards. The man with whom his insurance papers were left was Alexander Keith, a trusted agent of the Confederate Government at Halifax. When it became evident that Martin and both of his schooners were lost, Keith,' under his power of attorney, drew all the insurance on Martia's life and cargoes, and left for parts unknown, appropriating also some Confederate funds entrusted to his care. By this infamous act Captain Martin's family waß reduced from affluence to want. The exact cau-e of tho loss of these two schooners, and the tragic death of Captain Martin and one of his crews, was completely shrouded in mystery until twelve years afterwards, when tho veil was in part lifted, and—strange as it may seem—in connection with one of the most diabolical schemes for the wholesale destruction of property and human life at sea that ever curdled the blood of Christendom. Some of ourreadors will remember the terr bleloaa of life by the premature explosion of an infernal machine, towards tho close of 1875, on a wharf at Bremerhaven, Germany, just as the steamer Moselle was on the point of Bailing for America. Many passengers and their friends while in the act of leavetaking were terribly mangled by the

Fearful Explosion.

Immediate and prolonged investigation by the German police, afterwards aided by American detectives made known the following startling facts : — While all was in confusion in and around the steamer.immediately after the tradgedy, grcanß were heard proceeding from one of the state-rooms of the Moselle. Supposing one of the wounded victims was suffering there, policemen tried to enter the door,, and, finding it locked, forced it open. There lay a man, writhing, and weltering in his blood, shot in the head with a pistol. He survived long enough, and remained sufficiently conscious to acknowledge that he had shot himself from remorse, as he was the cause of this hideous butchery. He confessed that he had arranged a torpedo in a box to bo placed in the cargo of the Moselle, and by careless unloading, it had exploded on the wharf, before he had intended it should. It was; his plan to have the torpedo exploded by clock-work— which he had placed with it in I;he box, but not until several days later, after the steamer had left England, where it was to touch on itß way to the United States, as is customary with the German lines of merchant steamers. His intention was to nail on the steamer, but to leave it at the English port. His fiendish purpose was to aeoure money, for which he had placed insurance on part of the cargo—and this, too, in utter disregard of the lives of the many passengers.

A Thrill of Horror

swept throughout the civilised world whereever the news of the devilish design was spread. Further investigation showed that the name by which tho human monator had been known during his short stay in Germany was Thomaseen, which is merely the Gorman of Thomas. It was first stated and believe:] that he was an American, because he had come to Germany but a short time previous from the United States. It was learned that he had employed an innocent clock-maker - innocent because he knew nothing of Thomas's object -to make a dozen or more pieces of clock work, which the wretch intended to use systematically in destroying vessels, to secure insurance money oh thair cargoes. I was in Berlin, Germany, a few months after this terrible occurrence—that is, in February, 1876. Investigations were then progressing, and the German Press was still discussing the horrible event, and with no little bitterness towards America. ' Some of their newspapers declared that such monsters as Thomassen were tho natural outgrowth of American institutions. It created universal and deep interest. Wax models ot Thomassen'a bend,and full length 6gures of him, were displayed in the German museums, as wore some on the specimens of the clock-work which ho had invented to explode his infernal machines. But what was the sequel? And what has all this to do with our blockade-running in 1864 ?

This will now be explained. Imagine my utter astonishment, while reading a morning paper at a London hotel table soon after leaving Berlin — April, .1876 —to find a statement substantially as follows ! — had fully traced Thomasson's antecedents, and he was

Completely Identified.

He was not an American, but a Scotchman by birth. At one time, during our civil war, he had lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was agent for the Confederate Government. He had also been interested in blockade-running, being connected in 1864 with one P. C. Martin in that business, and his real name was Alexander Keith 1 Then followed an accouut of the loss of Captain Martin and bis schooners. It told how Keith absconded with all of Martin's insurance money and other funds, amounting in all to between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars. It told how he wont to Misscuri and other parts of the United States, under one or more assumed names. Under the name of Thomas he had married a lovely, innocent woman, and eventually found his way to Germany, and there ended his career as the fiend Thomasaen, of Moselle memory. Then how clear the mystery of poor Martin's fate became. Twelve years before, amid the varied and thrilling events of our war, Thomassen, or Keith, had practised his worse than brutal business of destroying vessels clandestinely, and

Stealing Their Insurance.

How evident it was that the genial, whole-souled, and brave Martin, and one of his devoted crews, had fallen victims to the same fiendish lust for gold that had planned this wholesale destruction of the Moselle and other steamers.

Just how Keith secured the loss of the two schooners, with their valuable blockade goods, bound from Halifax to Nassau, and the death of the unfortunate Captain Martin, is a secret that will, perhaps, ever lie buried in the realm of. the great unknown. The schooner that sank near Halifax, and from which its crew escaped, may have had its hull so tampered with as to cause it to founder early in the voyage, that its crew might be saved, Captain Martin not being with them. Some one in league with Keith may have been on board to secure this' result. Who knows ?

On the other schooner Keith probably placed an infernal machine, not unlike the one prepared for the German steamer twelve years afterwards, that he might make sure of the loss not only of the cargo, but of Martin's life.

However this may be, the loss of both schooners, coupled with subsequent events here related, is conclusive evidence of design by the consummate villain, Alexander Keitb,—" Overland Monthly.1'