ADVENTURE OF THE FOAM

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 8 January 1927, Page 8

ADVENTURE OF THE FOAM

A CONRADIAN STORY FROM NICARAGUA. NEW YORK, Nov. 4. Thirteen American saifors —twelve members of the crew and the captain oi the Foam, a New York boat—have just returned from South America to tell a Conradian tale of how they were “shanghaied” into a gun-running expedition by Nicaraguan rebels. Their vesesl left New York at the end of July bound for California via the Panama Canal. However, after stopping for repairs at some port, the ship sailed for Porto Mexico, near Vera Cruz, where the dirty work began. Twenty Mexicans began to load up The ship with boxes of ammunition. Several of the crew protested to the captain, but lie had apparently been bribed, for he would not hear of them leaving the ship. Later on, Nicaraguan rebels hoarded the boat, donned their uniforms, and swaggered about the deck, making the crew work at the point of the pistol. They unpacked the ammunition —rifles, machine-guns, and a 37-millimetre gun which was mounted on the forecastle. Thus, for two months, the protesting, sullen crew were forced to work while the ship was used in the revolutionary game. Small towns were shelled, soldiers were transported from place to place, until, luckily for the crew, the ship ran aground. The Nicaraguans deserted it; the crew were forced to subsist for sixteen days on canned food and coffee, until they were eventually taken off by an American cruiser.