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Show "GERMAN TERROR" IS FOUND TO BE HARMLESS YAGHT! a ; raiders. By that time the news of the Florence's arrival in West Indian waters wa-ters had been spread, apparently by wireless, for'her rakish form and great speed had excited curiosity and alarm, and each time he sighted a vessel she would sheer off and speed away as fust as possible. On January 20 the Florence steamed into Puerto Plata, where she found the French steamship Montreal and an American schooner at anchor. Captain Trlttou brought his vessel up between the two and came to anchor. At once the French vessel's sides were thronged with her people, for the yacht was flying fly-ing the French flag. Captain Tritton got into trouble with the authorities. A pilot came on board and insisted that the Florence make fast to a buoy. Then came port aiv thorltles, who asked all sorts of questions. ques-tions. Two civilians followed, and were told to sheer off. Half an hour later two armed guards were sent on board, and when Captain Tritton went ashore to the office of the collector of the port he found that the collector was one of the civilians he had ordered or-dered off. The collector asserted that the Florence had come in under false pretences and told him that he would have to pay a large bill of port charges. French Consul Mystified. In the meantime the French consul arrived, and finding that the yacht, although al-though flying the French flag, had no one on board who could spsk rrvncta. was sure that the Florence was a I'rus-siun I'rus-siun raider. Luckily for Captain Tritton. he found on shore Captain Smith of the United States Marine corps, he said, and he told him his troubles. The American officer soon straightened out matters and when the yacht commander paid a second call to the collector's office h found that he had no charges to pay. The guards were taken off and the Florence left as soon as she had taken aboard fresh water. From Puerto Plata the Florence ran for San Juan, P. R where she found that the news of a Prussian sea raider in the West Indies had been circulated. As soon as he went ashore and saw the French consul he was asked if he had seen any signs of the raider. "I am the raider," Captain Tritton told the consul, and after he' had explained ex-plained the French official insisted on taking the officers of the vessel on shore and treating them to dinner. Two More Vessels Routed. Going out of San Juan after nightfall, night-fall, the Florence picked up two merchantmen, mer-chantmen, running with their lights burning. As soon as the yacht loomed up both vessels doused their lights and took to their heels. On January 31 the Florence arrived at Fort de France, Martinique, her destination. It was dark when she arrived ar-rived off the pott' but Captain Tritton decided that as the weather was very rough he would take a chance and go in. With ail lights burning, "looking like a floating Coney island," as he expressed it, the Florence went past Negro Point. He blew his whistle to notify those on shore that he was coming com-ing in and at once a battery of searchlights search-lights was trained on him. Bugles blew the call to quarters on shore and a Morse light signaled him to crane In behind the fort. Instead of that He continued up into the port, making 1Q knots. He brought up close to two vessels, which at once turned searchlights on him. He turned his own searchllghi on one of them and found that she was a French cruiser. The cruiser's guns swung over until they were trained on him and a few moments later a boat's crew of French bluejackets, armed to the teeth, came tumbling over his side, The cruiser was the Jeanne d'Arc and the officer in command of the smaJl boat was bitterly disappointed -whet he found that he was not capturing n Prussian raider. Taken as Transport. When dawn came the Florence found that she was anchored between the Jeanne d'Arc and the Magdalena of the Royal Mail Steam Packet line, in service serv-ice as a transport. The Magdalena was taking no chances, and ifer stern gun was aimed at the yacht. It was several sev-eral hours before Captain Tritton was able to assure the port authorities that his vessel was really the Florence, which they were expecting. They explained ex-plained to him that they had never believed that he would attempt to make port at night and that he had narrowly escaped being fired upon by the shore batteries at Negro Point. He received a severe reprimand, he said, and was then told to take his vessel ves-sel into the inner basin, where she was formally turned over to the agents of the French owners. Story of Florence's Cruise in West Indies Is Stranger Than Fiction. VESSELS FLEE AT APPROACH Islands in Panic as Swift French Boat Puts in at Their Ports "Captured" by an Allied Warship as She Reaches Her Destination. New York. How the steam yacht Florence, sold to French owners, terrorized ter-rorized West Indian ports and made British merchantmen flee from her because be-cause they thought she was a Prussian raider, was told in graphic language by her commander Capt. John Tritton, when he called at the New York Herald Her-ald Ship News office on his return to this city. All unwittingly the Florence, on her way from this port to Martinique, where she was turned over to her new owners, was responsible for much perturbation per-turbation on the part of many merchant mer-chant vessels, according to Captain Tritton, and caused hearts in French and British West Indian ports to skip several beats when her rakish form was sighted. The captain's story lays at rest the ghost of the mysterious raider that was reported cruising in the West Indies. Stranger Than Fiction. The story of the Florence's trip reads like the wildest of fiction. One merchantman who sighted her off Cape Hatteras almost ran on the shoals in her efforts to avoid the speedy craft; the governor of Nassau was convinced that she entered that port for a sinister sinis-ter purpose; the French consul at Puerto Plata denounced her as a Prussian Prus-sian raider, and when she finally dashed into the harbor of Fort de France, her designation, she narrowly escaped being blown out of the water by shore batteries and the guns of the French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc. To understand the story of the Florence Flor-ence one must begin at the beginning. Built in 1903, by Lewis Nixon, at the Crescent ship yards, Elizabethtown, N. J., and christened the Czarina, she was sold some years later to John C. Eaton of Toronto, Canada, and renamed the Emeline. At the outbreak of the war she was turned over by him for the use of the Canadian coast guard, and once more rechristened, this time the Florence. Flor-ence. She, was sold, a short time ago to the Societe Generale de Transports of Martinique, a French concern, which was to place her in the freight service in the West Indies. She came from Canada to New York, and was refitted for her new service, leaving this port under command of Captain Tritton and a crew of 15 on January 8. From the time she left New York, Captain Tritton said, she met nothing but heavy weather. The Florence went slamming through the ruck at a good clip, for Captain Tritton had orders or-ders to deliver her as soon as possible. possi-ble. On January 11 she made Hampton Hamp-ton Roads. Leaving there he next day she ran into her first adventure. She passed Hatteras that night, and, according to Captain Tritton, went inside in-side the light Vessel. A merchantman going the same way also was passing Inside. Merchantman Flees. As the yacht, logging a good 16 knots, came racing through the heavy seas, with occasional flames spurting from her funnel, the merchantman turned Inshore in an effort to get out of her way and make the three-mile fimit. She was almost in the shoals before she turned out again. By that time the Florence was well by. The Florence made Nassau, Bahamas, Baha-mas, and on her arrival those aboard saw a great disturbance' on shore. Soldiers Sol-diers could be seen assembling, and when the captain went ashore he found lin automobile awaiting him. He was hurried to the home of the governor, and there underwent four hours of gruelling before he could make the authorities au-thorities believe that he .was only what he had represented himself to be. "If you had come in at night," he said the governor told him, "you would have caused a riot.". "If I had come In I would have played my searchlight on the port," Tritton said he replied, and the governor gov-ernor told him if he had there probably prob-ably would have been an exodus from the town. ; On January 23 the yacht touched at Great Inagua. j On the way from there the Florence passed between Tortuga island and Porto Pais, on the mainland of Hayti, passing through the funnel-like straits with an 85-mile gale behind her. Captain Cap-tain Tritton said that once In the straits he could not turn back and could only keep his vessel going before the wind, with all the steam be could crowd on, to give her steerage way. She made Agul bay with difficulty, having hav-ing no pilot, and went bowling through the reefs at a great rate, with two Lien in the chains sounding. Captain Tritton Trit-ton was able to bring her in to safety without Incident. Makes for Cap Hatien. From there the Florence made for Cape IJatien, meeting on the way the Dutch steamship Orange Nassau, on her way to this port. Captain Tritton took his vessel through the banks of Monte Christi, for he himself was taking tak-ing no chances on meeting Prussian |
