SHOT AND SHELL.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18659, 7 April 1926, Page 10

SHOT AND SHELL.

BRITISH SHIP ASSAILED.

BY AMERICAN CUTTER.

(prom ova ow:r coBBESroKMXT.) VANCOUVER, March 10. Considerable resentment has been expressed throughout Canada at the treatment accorded the alleged rum-running Canadian schooner Eastwood, which arrived at Lunenberg, Nova Seotia, bearing as strange a tale as has ever been the lot of a vessel to tell, the craft having her decks and rigging peppered with shot and six shells in her portside. No tale of hijacking of piracy or looting is told to account for the condition of the boat, but a straight tale of a Canadian vessel with the British flag flying from her masthead, being used as a target by the United Stages cutter Seneca. There were one-pound shells and machine-gun bullets embedded in the sides and deck of the ship to give evidence of her story, and to substantiate the tales related by Captain John Spindler, master of the Eastwood, and her crew of Nova Scotian sailors. The arrival of the vessel caused a sensation in shipping circles, and news of the event spread through the entire province, bringing a wave of anger and resentment, for according to the story told by the captain and his crew, the Eastwood was deliberately fired upon by the United States cutter Seneca when she was 21 miles off the coast. The matter was immediately taken up at Ottawa by the owners of the ship. According to the statement made by Captain Spindler, the Eastwood left Halifax on December 20th, and proceeded to Rum Row on February 15th. He was 21 miles off Long Island, the exact position being seventy-three, twenty-four longitude and forty-seven-teen latitude. The Eastwood was lying at anchor when a cutter, said to be the Seneca, put in an appearance, and set out a target about 75 feet from the port side of the Eastwood. The cutter then retired to a distance of about a quarter of a mile/ and opened fire, presumably at the target, although, according to the men on the Eastwood the one-pound shells and machine-gun bullets began to rain down on the vessel. The men on the Nova Scotia vessel immediately ran up the British flag, believing that this would cause the cutter to cease, or at least would serve to improve the aim of the gunners, and get them to shift their sights to the target, but according to the men the flag raising only served to brine; down upon them a heavier rain of bullets. Anchor Saves Day. The shells whizzed across the seas and splashed about the Eastwood, or sunk deep into her sides, the machinegun bullets spat wickedly, and found lodgment in decks and woodwork while skylight and rigging snapped under the steel rain.

The crew sought refuge in the hold, and then remained until a British tanker hove in view, and the cutter withdrew. The captain .of the Seneca immediately ordered the anchor up and started for Lunenberg.

In all 75 shots were 'fired, and most of them were hits.\ There was a hole in the vessel's' port side about two feet above the water line. Six shells pierced the vessel's port side and a shell shattered the woodwork of the captain's cabin. Captain Spindler was just entering the cabin when the shell struck and he had a 'narrow escape from injury. The spanker boom was hit by a shell and three shots landed in the mizzen mast about two feet above the deck.

Two gasoline casks : blew up as a result of the firing On the night, of January 16th the Eastwood was again fired on, but as the shots were fired in the dark, it was impossible to ascertain the identity of lier assailant. Some 30 shots were, it was said, fired, and minor damage resulted. The captain and crew of the Eastwood stated that their experience had curbed any further desire to venture on Rum Row. The Eastwood was originally built as a steam trawler, and was later .rigged with four masts, and carried five thousand cases of liquor. The Damage.

According to a statement made in Lunenberg by B. B. Cann, of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia,. owner of the alleged rum-running schooner Eastwood, a formal protest was under''preparation for submission to the Canadian Government: '"■'',, -j Mr Cann said: "I would not consider myself a patriotic citizen unless I registered a protest against this sort ot treatment. I will surely make a formal protest to the Government at Ottawa. I intend to fight this case to the very limit, not because of the damage done to my vessel, nor the expense to myself, but -because I, as a Canadian will not stand idle and allow any foreign country to treat the Union. Jack as a joke when it is hoisted on the mast of a British merchantman." On his arrival in Lunenburg from Yarmouth, the owner of the Eastwood said he had been given a verbal, statement which came directly from two ot the Seneca's crew, admitting that the cutter wns in the position given by Captain John Spindler, of the Eastwood, on February 15th and* might have manoauvred exactly as stated by him. even to the firing of the one-pound shells. Declaring he had "absolute proof ".that the Seneca's captain was "evading the truth," Mr Cann stated that as soon.as he had collected all,the necessary evidence, including- affidavits from each member of the schooner crew, photographs of the bullets and steel projectiles embedded in the masts, bulwarks, cabin and inner timbers, he would forward a formal protest to the authorities at Ottawa. Among the 30 fragments of exploded shells and one "dud," Mr Cann said he had two bullets which had lodged themselves in Captain Spindler's bed. A Lloyd surveyor estimated the '7amnae to the Eastwood at 1800 dollars. The Eastwood is .the largest four-mast-ed shin in the Canadian marine, and Mr Cann' expressed the opinion that the case was one for the British Admiralty.