activities preceded those of Simon Bolivar, sailed from New York on what
would have been called, some years later, a filibustering expedition. His
three vessels were manned chiefly by Americans. There are always those
whose love of excitement and adventure, sometimes mixed with an active
sympathy for an under dog, leads them to engage in such an enterprise. This
one was productive of no important results. There were plenty of American
pirates and privateers in earlier days, but I have found no record of any
earlier actual expedition whose purpose was the creation of a new republic.
But during the next hundred years, including the considerable number
of Americans who have engaged in the present disorder in Mexico, such
enterprises have been numerous. Among the most notable are the several
Lopez expeditions to Cuba, about 1850, and the Walker expeditions to
Lower California, Nicaragua, and Honduras, a few years later. The steamer
_Virginius_, to which reference is made in another chapter, was engaged
in filibustering when she was captured, in 1873, and many of her crew and
passengers unlawfully executed, by Spanish authority, in Santiago. But that
was only one of many similar enterprises during the Ten Years' War in Cuba.
It is very doubtful if the war could have continued as it did without them.
During our own Civil War, we called such industries "blockade-running," but
it was all quite the same sort of thing. The Confederate army needed arms,
ammunition, medicine, and supplies of many kinds. On April 19, 1861,
President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the ports of the seceded States,
with a supplementary proclamation on the 27th that completed the line, and
thus tied the South hand and foot. In his _History of the United States_,
Elson notes that raw cotton could be bought in Southern ports for four
cents a pound while it was worth $2.50 a pound in Liverpool, and that a ton
of salt worth seven or eight dollars in Nassau, a few miles off the coast,
was worth $1700 in gold in Richmond before the close of the war, all
because of the blockade.
There is, naturally, a lack of detail regarding the many expeditions, large
and small, of the Ten Years' War, but they began soon after the opening of
hostilities. In his _Diary_, Gideon Welles notes, under date of April 7,
1869, the prevalence of "rumors of illegal expeditions fitting out in our
country to aid the Cuban insurgents," and states that "our countrymen are
in sympathy with them." In December, of that year, President Grant reported
that a number of illegal expeditions had been broken up, but did not
refer to those that had succeeded. In October, 1870, he issued a general
proclamation, without specific reference to Cuba, warning all persons
against engagement in such expeditions. During the years of the war,
Spanish warships, at different times, seized American vessels, a proceeding
which led to some active diplomatic negotiation, and which, on several
occasions, threatened to involve this country in war with Spain. The
problem of the industry variously known as filibustering, blockade-running,
gun-running, and the shipment of contraband, has two ends. There is, first,
the task of getting the shipment out of one country, and, second, the task
of getting it into another country. While it is generally classed as an
unlawful enterprise, there frequently arises a difficulty in proving
violation of law, even when goods are seized and the participants arrested.
There is, perhaps, a moral question involved also. Such shipments may be a
violation of the law. They are generally so regarded. But they may be,
as in the case of the struggling Cubans, struggling against actual
and generally admitted wrongs, the only means of serving a worthy and
commendable end. There is no doubt that, in Cuba's revolution of 1895,
Americans who knew about the work were prone to regard a successful
expedition to the island with satisfaction if not with glee. They were
inclined to regard those engaged as worthy patriots rather than as
law-breakers.
Under date of February 23, 1898, the House of Representatives requested
the Secretary of the Treasury to inform that body "at the earliest date
practicable, if not incompatible with the public service, what has been
done by the United States to prevent the conveyance to the Cubans
of articles produced in the United States, and what to prevent
'filibustering,' and with what results, giving particulars, and at what
expense to the United States." A reply was sent on the 28th. It makes a
very good showing for the activities of the officials responsible for the
prevention of such expeditions, but from all I can learn about the matter,
it is quite incomplete. There were a number of excursions not set down in
the official records. Sailing dates and time and place of arrival were not
advertised in the daily papers.
The official statement shows that sixty reports of alleged filibustering
expeditions were brought to the attention of the Treasury Department; that
twenty-eight of them were frustrated through efforts of the Department;
that five were frustrated by the United States Navy; four by Spain; two
wrecked; one driven back by storm; one failed through a combination of
causes; and seventeen that may be regarded as successful expeditions. The
records of the Cuban _junta_ very materially increase the number in the
latter class. The despatch of these expeditions was a three-cornered battle
of wits. The groups engaged were the officials of the United States, the
representatives of Spain, and the agents of the revolution. The United
States employed the revenue service and the navy, aided on land by the
Customs Service, the Secret Service, and other Federal officers. The
official representatives of Spain employed scores of detectives and Spanish
spies. The Cuban group sought to outwit them all, and succeeded remarkably
well in doing so. A part of the story has been told, with general
correctness, in a little volume entitled _A Captain Unafraid_, described
as _The Strange Adventures of Dynamite Johnny O'Brien_. This man, really a
remarkable man in his special line, was born in New York, in 1837, and, at
the time this is written, is still living. He was born and grew to boyhood
in the shadow of the numerous shipyards then in active operation along the
East River. The yards were his playground. At thirteen years of age, he ran
away and went to see as cook on a fishing sloop. He admits that he could
not then "cook a pot of water without burning it," but claims that he
could catch cod-fish where no one else could find them. From fisherman,
sailing-master on private yachts, schooner captain, and officer in the
United States Navy in the Civil War, he became a licensed East River pilot
in New York. He became what might be called a professional filibuster
at the time of the revolution in Colombia, in 1885, following that with
similar experience in a revolt in Honduras two years later. The Cubans
landed a few expeditions in 1895, but a greater number were blocked.
In March, 1896, they applied to O'Brien and engaged him to command the
_Bermuda_, then lying in New York and ready to sail. Captain O'Brien
reports that her cargo included "2,500 rifles, a 12-pounder Hotchkiss
field-gun, 1,500 revolvers, 200 short carbines, 1000 pounds of dynamite,
1,200 _machetes_, and an abundance of ammunition." All was packed in boxes
marked "codfish," and "medicines."
The _Bermuda_ sailed the next morning, March 15, with O'Brien in command,
cleared for Vera Cruz. The Cubans, including General Calixto Garcia, who
were to go on the expedition, were sent to Atlantic City, there to engage a
fishing sloop to take them off-shore where they would be picked up by the
_Bermuda_ on her way. The ship was under suspicion, and was followed down
the bay by tugboats carrying United States marshals, customs officers, and
newspaper reporters. O'Brien says: "They hung on to us down through the
lower bay and out past Sandy Hook, without getting enough to pay for a
pound of the coal they were furiously burning to keep up with us. I don't
know how far they might have followed us, but when we were well clear of
the Hook, a kind fortune sent along a blinding snow-storm, which soon
chased them back home." General Garcia and his companions were picked up as
planned, and that part of the enterprise was completed. The vessel was
on its way. A somewhat roundabout route was taken in order to avoid any
possible overhauling by naval or revenue ships. The point selected for the
landing was a little harbor on the north coast about thirty miles from the
eastern end of the island. The party included two Cuban pilots, supposed to
know the coast where they were to land. One of them proved to be a traitor
and the other, O'Brien says, "was at best an ignoramus." The traitor, who,
after the landing, paid for his offence with his life, tried to take them
into the harbor of Baracoa, where lay five Spanish warships. But O'Brien
knew the difference, as shown by his official charts, between the Cape
Maisi light, visible for eighteen miles, and the Baracoa light, visible
for only eight miles, and kicked the pilot off the bridge. The landing was
begun at half-past ten at night, and completed about three o'clock in the
morning, with five Spanish warships barely more than five miles away. The
United States Treasury Department reported this expedition as "successful."
The vessel then proceeded to Honduras, where it took on a cargo of bananas,
and returned, under orders, to Philadelphia, the home city of its owner,
Mr. John D. Hart. Arrests were made soon after the arrival, including Hart,
the owner of the vessel, O'Brien, and his mate, and General Emilio Nuñez
who accompanied the expedition as the representative of the _junta_. The
case was transferred from the courts in Philadelphia to New York, and there
duly heard. The alleged offenders were defended by Horatio Rubens, Esq., of
New York, the official counsel of the _junta_. One of the grounds of the
defence was that the defendants might be guilty of smuggling arms into
Cuba, but with that offence the courts of the United States had nothing to
do. The jury disagreed. The indictments were held over the heads of the
members of the group, but no further action was taken, and two or three
years later the case was dismissed by order of the Attorney General of the
United States.
This expedition fairly illustrates the science of filibustering in its
elementary form, a clearance with some attendant risk; a voyage with
possibility of interference at any time; and a landing made with still
greater risk and danger of capture. The trip had been made so successfully
and with such full satisfaction to the promoters that the _junta_ urged
O'Brien to remain with them as long as there should be need for his
services, and he agreed to do so. A department of expeditions was organized
under the general control of Emilio Nuñez, with O'Brien as navigator.
Credit for the numerous successful expeditions that followed lies in
differing degrees with Nuñez, Palma, Rubens, O'Brien, Hart, Cartaya, and
others less well known in connection with the enterprises. But for the work
they did, the risks they ran, Cuba's revolution must have failed. All of
them risked jail sentences, and some of them risked their lives in ways
perhaps even more dangerous than fighting in the field. The success of the
_Bermuda_ expedition, carried out by what may be called direct evasion,
quite seriously disturbed the authorities in this country, and excited them
to greater precautions and wider activity. Whatever may have been their
personal feelings in the matter, it was their duty to see that the laws of
the country were enforced as far as they could be. The players of the game
for the Cubans met the new activities with complicated moves, many of
which puzzled the watching officials, and landed a number of expeditions.
Meanwhile, minor expeditions continued. The official report notes that on
March 12, 1896, the _Commodore_, a 100-ton steamer, sailed from Charleston
with men, arms, and ammunition, and landed them in Cuba. The _Laurada_, a
900-ton steamer, was reported by the Spanish Legation as having sailed on
May 9, meeting three tugs and two lighters, off the coast, from which were
transferred men and arms. The report states that "some of the men landed in
Cuba, but the larger part of the arms and ammunition was thrown into the
sea," which may or may not have been the case. On May 23, the tug _Three
Friends_ left Jacksonville, took on men and arms from two small vessels
waiting outside, and landed all in Cuba. A month later, and again two
months later, the _Three Friends_ repeated the trip from Florida ports. On
June 17, the _Commodore_ made another successful trip from Charleston.
While these and other minor expeditions were going on, the department of
expeditions in New York was busy with a more extensive enterprise. An order
was placed for 3000 rifles, 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition, 3 12-pound
Hotchkiss field-guns and 600 shells, _machetes_, and several tons of
dynamite. The steamer _Laurada_ was chartered, and the ocean-going tug
_Dauntless_ was bought in Brunswick, Georgia. A part of the purchased
munitions was ordered to New York, and the remainder, two car loads,
shipped to Jacksonville by express. Ostensibly, the _Laurada_ was to sail
from Philadelphia to Jamaica for a cargo of fruit, a business in which
she had at times engaged. Her actual instructions were to proceed to the
vicinity of Barnegat, about forty miles from New York, and there, at sea,
await orders. The arms and ammunition came down from Bridgeport on the
regular boat from that city, and were left on board until night. There was
no particular secrecy about the shipment, and detectives followed it. But
when, at dark, the big gates of the dock were closed and locked and all
seemed over for the day, the watchers assumed that nothing would be done
until the next day, and went away. But, immediately after their departure,
a big lighter slipped quietly into the dock across the wharf from the
Bridgeport boat, a swarm of men appeared and, behind the closed gates, in
the semi-darkness of the wharf, rushed boxes from steamer to lighter. The
work was finished at midnight; a tug slipped up and attached a hawser to
the lighter; and the cargo was on its way to Cuba. Johnny O'Brien was on
the tug. The _Laurada_ was met off Barnegat, as arranged, and the cargo and
about fifty Cubans put on board of her. She was ordered to proceed slowly
to Navassa Island where the _Dauntless_ would meet her. General Nuñez and
O'Brien returned to New York on the tug, and while the detectives suspected
that something had been done, they had no clue whatever to guide them.
Nuñez and O'Brien started immediately for Charleston, with detectives at
their heels. The _Commodore_, a tug then owned by the Cubans, lay in the
harbor of that city, with a revenue cutter standing guard over her. She was
ordered to get up steam and to go through all the motions of an immediate
departure. But this was a ruse to draw attention away from the actual
operations. Rubens, meanwhile, had gone to Jacksonville where he busied
himself in convincing the authorities that the tug _Three Friends_ was
about to get away with an expedition. With one revenue cutter watching the
_Commodore_ in Charleston, the other cutter in the neighborhood was engaged
in watching the _Three Friends_ in Jacksonville, thus leaving a clear coast
between those cities. In Charleston were about seventy-five Cubans waiting
a chance to get to the island. O'Brien states that about twenty-five
detectives were following their party. Late in the afternoon of August
13, while the smoke was pouring from the funnels of the _Commodore_, the
regular south-bound train pulled out of the city. Its rear car was a
reserved coach carrying the Cuban party, numbering a hundred or so.
Detectives tried to enter, but were told that it was a private car, which
it was. They went along in the forward cars. At ten o'clock that night, the
train reached Callahan, where the Coast Line crossed the Seaboard Air Line.
While the train was halted for the crossing, that rear car was quietly
uncoupled. The train went on, detectives and all. The railroad arrangements
were effected through the invaluable assistance of Mr. Alphonso Fritot, a
local railway man whose authority enabled him to do with trains and train
movement whatever he saw fit. He was himself of Cuban birth, though of
French-American parentage, with ample reason, both personal and patriotic,
for serving his Cuban friends, and his services were beyond measure. By his
orders, when that train with its band of detectives had pulled away for
Jacksonville, an engine picked up the detached car and ran it over to the
Coast Line. A few miles away, it collected from a blind siding the two cars
of arms and ammunition shipped some days before, from Bridgeport. A little
further on, the line crossed the Satilla River. There lay the _Dauntless_,
purchased by Rubens. Steam was up, and a quick job was made of transferring
cargo and men from train to boat. Another tug brought a supply of coal, and
soon after sunrise another expedition was on its way to Cuba. All this may
be very immoral, but some who were on the expedition have told me that it
was at least tremendously exciting.
On August 17, the passengers and cargo were landed on the Cuban coast near
Nuevitas. The tug then proceeded to Navassa Island to meet the _Laurada_.
Half of the men and half of the cargo of the steamer were transferred to
the tug, and all were safely landed in a little cove a few miles west of
Santiago. The landing was made in broad daylight. There were a number of
Spanish naval vessels in Santiago harbor, and the city itself was filled
with Spanish troops. The tug then returned for the remainder of the
_Laurada's_ passengers and cargo, all of which were landed a few days later
at the place of the earlier landing. The _Laurada_ went on to Jamaica and
loaded with bananas, with which she sailed for Charleston. Arrests were
made as a result of the expedition, and the owner of the ship, Mr. John D.
Hart, was convicted and sentenced to sixteen months in the penitentiary.
After serving four months of his term, a pardon was secured. He is said to
be the only one, out of all those engaged in the many expeditions, who was
actually convicted, and his only offence was the chartering of his ships
to the Cuban revolutionists. The _Dauntless_ was seized on her return to
Jacksonville, but was soon released. An effort was made to indict O'Brien,
but there was too much sympathy for the Cubans in Florida, where the effort
was made. A number of minor expeditions were carried out in the next few
months, by the _Dauntless_, the _Three Friends_, and the _Commodore_, the
latter being wrecked in the last week in December.
In February, 1897, another complicated manoeuvre was successfully executed.
This involved the use of the _Bermuda_, the _Laurada_, and no less than
seven smaller auxilliary vessels, tugs, lighters, and schooners. Rut the
_Laurada_ landed the cargo on the north-eastern coast of the island.
As O'Brien tells the story, this successful expedition so angered
Captain-General Weyler, then the ruler of the island, that he sent a
message to the daring filibuster, through an American newspaper man,
somewhat as follows: "Tell O'Brien that we will get him, sooner or later,
and when we do, instead of having him shot along with his Cuban companions,
I am going to have him ignominiously hanged from the flag-pole at Cabaña,
in full view of the city." Cabaña is the old fortress across the bay,
visible from nearly all parts of Havana. To this, O'Brien sent reply
saying: "To show my contempt for you and all who take orders from you, I
will make a landing within plain sight of Havana on my next trip to Cuba.
I may even land an expedition inside of the harbor and take you away a
prisoner. If we should capture you, which is much more likely than that you
will ever capture me, I will have you chopped up into small pieces and fed
to the fires of the _Dauntless_." A few months later, this little Irishman,
whom Weyler denounced as a "bloodthirsty, dare-devil," and who may have
been a dare-devil but was not bloodthirsty, actually carried out a part of
this seemingly reckless threat. He landed a cargo within a mile and a half
of Morro Castle.
By this time, vessels of the United States navy were employed,
supplementing the work of the Revenue Service. This, of course, added both
difficulty and danger to the work. In March and April, several expeditions
were interrupted. For the Spanish blockade of the Cuban coast, there was
only contempt. Captain O'Brien told a naval officer that if the navy and
the revenue cutters would let him alone he would "advertise the time and
place of departure, carry excursions on every trip, and guarantee that
every expedition would be landed on time." In May, 1897, two carloads of
arms and ammunition were shipped from New York to Jacksonville, but, by
the authority of Mr. Fritot, they were quietly dropped from the train at
a junction point, and sent to Wilmington, N.C. Their contents were
transferred to the tug _Alexander Jones_, and that boat proceeded
nonchalantly down the river. Soon afterward, an old schooner, the _John
D. Long_, loaded with coal, followed the tug. Two revenue cutters were on
hand, but there was nothing in the movements of these vessels to excite
their interest. Off shore, the tug attached a towline to the schooner that
was carrying its coal supply, its own bunkers being crammed with guns and
cartridges. Off Palm Beach, General Nuñez and some sixty Cubans were taken
from a fishing boat, according to a prearranged plan. Two days later, at an
agreed upon place, they were joined by the _Dauntless_ which had slipped
out of Jacksonville. The excursion was then complete. About half the cargo
of the _Jones_ was transferred to the _Dauntless_ and was landed, May 21, a
few miles east of Nuevitas. A second trip took the remainder of the cargo
of the _Jones_ and most of the Cuban passengers, and landed the lot under
the very guns, such as they were, of Morro Castle, and within about three
miles of the Palace of Captain-General Weyler. All that time, a force of
insurgents under Rodriguez and Aurenguren was operating in that immediate
vicinity, and was in great need of the supplies thus obtained. Some of the
dynamite then landed was used the next day to blow up a train on which
Weyler was supposed to be travelling, but in their haste the Cubans got one
train ahead of that carrying the official party. The row that Weyler made
about this landing will probably never be forgotten by the subordinates who
were the immediate victims of his rage.