Mysterious Fate of Blockade Runners [pp. 298-302]

Mysterious Fate of Blockade-Runners.
of leave-taking, were terribly mangled by the
fearful explosion. Immediate and prolonged
investigation by the German police, afterwards aided by American detectives, made
known the following startling facts:
While all was in confusion in and around
the steamer, immediately after the tragedy,
groans were heard, proceeding from one of
the staterooms of the "Moselle." Supposing
one of the wounded victims was suffering
there, policemen tried to enter the door,
and, finding it locked, forced it open. There
lay a man, writhing, and weltering in his
blood, shot in the head with a pistol. He
survived long enough, and remained sufficiently conscious, to acknowledge that he
had shot himself from remorse, as he was the
cause of this hideous butchery. He confessed that he had arranged a torpedo in a
box to be placed in the cargo of the "Moselle," and, by careless unloading, it had
exploded on the wharf, before he had intended it should. It was his plan to have
the torpedo exploded by clock-work which
he had placed with it in the box-but not
until several days later, after the steamer had
left England, where it was to touch on its
way to the United States, as is customary
with the German lines of merchant steamers.
His intention was to sail on the steamer, but
to leave it at the English port. His fiendish
purpose was to secure money, for which he
had placed insurance on part of the cargo
and this, too, in utter disregard of the lives
of the many passengers.
A thrill of horror swept throughout the civilized world wherever the news of the devilish design was spread. Farther investigation
showed that the name by which this human
monster had been known during his short
stay in Germany was Thomassen, which is
merely the German for Thomas. It was first
stated and believed that he was an American, because he had come to Germany but
a short time previous from the United States.
It was learned that he had employed an innocent clock-maker-innocent, because he
knew nothing of Thomas's object to make
a dozen or more pieces of clock-work, which
the wretch intended to use systematically in
destroying vessels, to secure insurance money
on their cargoes.
I was in Berlin, Germany, a few months
after this terrible occurrence-that is, in February, 1876. Investigations were then progressing, and the German press was still discussing the horrible event, and with no little
bitterness towards America. Some of their
newspapers declared that such monsters as
Thomassen were a natural outgrowth of
American institutions. It created universal
and deep interest. Wax models of Thomassen's head, and full length figures of him,
were displayed in the German museums, as
were some of the specimens of the clockwork, which he had invented to explode his
infernal machines.
But what was the sequel? And what has
all this to do with our blockade-running in
1864?
This will now be explained. Imagine my
utter astonishment, while reading a morning
paper at a London hotel table soon after leaving Berlin-April, 1876-to find a statement
substantially as follows: The joint efforts of
German and American detectives had fully
traced Thomassen's antecedents, and he was
completely identified. He was not an American, but a Scotchman by birth. At one time,
during our civil war, he had lived in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, where he was an agent for the
Confederate Government. He had also been
interested in blockade-running, being connected in i864 with one P. C. Martin in that
business, and his real name was Alexander
Keith!/ Then followed an account of the
loss of Captain Martin and his schooners. It
told how Keith absconded with all of Martin's insurance money and other funds,
amounting in all to between $200,oo000 and
$300,000. It told how he went to Missouri,
and other parts of the United States, under
one or more assumed names. Under the
name Thomas, he had married a lovely, innocent woman, and eventually found his way
to Germany, and there ended his career as
the fiend Thomassen, of "Moselle" memory.
Then how clear the mystery of poor Martin's fate became. Twelve years before, amid
the varied and thrilling events of our war,
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