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Archiver > GENIRE > 2004-06 > 1088588088


From: Dennis Ahern <>
Subject: Re: Excerpts from Irish newspapers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 09:34:48 +0000 (UTC)


From The Cork Examiner, 13 December 1864 -

THE ACCIDENTAL SINKING OF THE FLORIDA.
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(From the Times' Correspondent.)
I think that I ventured a fortnight ago to predict that, come what
might, the Confederate war ship Florida, piratically seized in the
harbour of Bahia, would never be surrendered to the demands of
Brazil, or any other Power ; and that if the Federal Government were
compelled to apologise to Brazil, had otherwise to make reparation
and the amende honorable, means would be invented to render it
impossible to give up the ship. The prediction has been verified. The
agency I supposed was that of accidental fire. In this respect I was
wrong. The Florida has been "accidentally" run into by a Federal
transport, under heavy pressure of steam, and sunk in nine fathoms of
water. The "accident" will impose upon no one. Whether it will tend to
exalt the character of the American people or that of their Government
in the estimation of the world is a matter in which the majority of the
Americans will give themselves no concern. It is a "smart Yankee
trick," and in a country where "smartness" ranks among the vertues
[sic] the captain of the clumsy but effective transport which did the
grateful mischief will doubtless expect to share the applause which has
already been bestowed upon Captain Collins of the Wachusetts, and
to be entertained at a public dinner by the solid men of Boston and the
solider men of New York. There is but a small likelihood that he will
be disappointed.

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Dennis Ahern | Ireland Newspaper Abstracts
Acton, Massachusetts | http://www.IrelandOldNews.com
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