ADVENTURE OF THE FOAM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16230, 3 January 1927, Page 9

ADVENTURE OF THE FOAM

A CQNRADIAN STORY FROM NICARAGUA. NEW YORK, Nov. .4. .Thirteen American sailors —twelve members of the crew and the captain of the Foam, a New York boat—have just returned from South America to telka Conradian talc of how they were "sha-iighfticd" into a gun-running expedition by Nicaraguan rebels. Their vessel left New York 'at the en 9 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 thevship with- -boxes of ammunition. Se"Ye>aF, |6JR the'.'-icretv; protested, to';,tlio had -apparently been bribed,: for ; he would not hear of, them' jijayJng thOr ship; Later on, .Nicaraguan rebels •boarded the boat,, donned their uniforms, and swaggered about tlit* deck, making tho crow work at the point of the pistol. They unpacked the ammunition —rifles, machine guns, 3rtd ; a 07-millimotre gun which was j mounted on the forecastle.

Thus, for two months, the protesting, sullen crew- were forced to work while the ship was. used in t the revolutionary 'game. /Small towns/were. shelled, "spldiors ►'■ /wVre!'•* TranfeHrted, from place to place,.until, luckily for the crew ? the ship ran aground. The Nicaraguans deserted it; the crewWere forced to subsist for sixteen days on.canned food and coffee,'until they vr&rc eventually taken off by an Ameri. cap cruiser. ,