FRENCH AND PRUSSIAN SHIPS FOUGHT DUEL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19268, 3 January 1931, Page 21 (Supplement)

FRENCH AND PRUSSIAN SHIPS FOUGHT DUEL.

QUAINT ACCOUNT OF WAR INCIDENT 60 YEARS AGO

Files of the “ Christchurch Star ” of sixty years ago contain some amusing articles regarding the progress of the Franco-Prussian War, and the highwater mark of absurdity seems to have been reached in telegrams from Havana telling of a notable naval engagement there. The following message is from the “Star” of December 30, 1870:—■ On Monday, November 7, the Prussian war steamer Meteor, carrying three guns, and the French war steamer Bouvet, carrying five, entered this harbour. The Meteor sailed out again after the French mail steamer Nouveau Monde had sailed, but the mail steamer immediately returned, fearing capture. On* the night of Tuesday, the *Bth, the Bouvet left port, but waited outside for the German vessel, in anticipation of the twenty-four hours prescribed by law. The steamer Meteor followed, a naval duel having been arranged between the officers before starting. The Spanish war steamer Hernando Cortes accompanied the two vessels. The Meteor had a crew of sixty men, and the Bouvet eighty. The Bouvet was ten miles beyond the offing, but, upon the coming out of the Meteor, she steamed inwards towards the neutral line.

The Bouvet opened the contest by firing five shots, which the Meteor promptly returned. The Bouvet then attempted to board the Meteor. In this she was unsuccessful. Her rigging became entangled, carrying away her main and mizzen masts, and the rigging, falling with the malts, became entangled with the Meteor’s screw. At the same moment the Meteor sent a shell into the inside of the Bouvet, smashing her steam pipe. The Meteor, by reason of the disabling of her screw, became unmanageable, and the Bouvet, finding the quar-

ters hot and capture certain if she waited until the Meteor could disentangle herself, set sail rapidly and made for port, the Meteor continuing to fire meanwhile. With a fair wind the Bouvet was enabled to cross into Spanish water before the Meteor could disentangle her screw. At this time the Hernando Cortes fired a gun as a signal that the combat had closed. Both fought bravely. The German gunboat Meteor was accorded the victory. Both vessels are now in port repairing damages. The Meteor had three killed and one wounded. The Bouvet had only three wounded. The Germans at Havana are much elated with the affair, which caused intense excitement. The two Prussians, Carbonier and Thomsen, who were killed in the naval engagement, were buried here on the 10th instant, the German merchants attending the funeral in an immense body. It is now said that the Bouvet left the scene of the fight under steam and sail. The German residents are arranging 1 a grand banquet for the officers of the Meteor.