Padlocked Flagship

Two years ago the Colombian Navy splashed into the news by racing 5,000 mi. around South America and up the Amazon River to the scene of a potential war with Peru. Peru has a sad navy: two old cruisers, three destroyers, four submarines. Colombia has one even sadder: six little gunboats, the biggest under 700 tons, and some coast guard patrol boats.* Luckily the League of Nations settled the "war" in Colombia's favor, but the worried Colombians have lately been picking up bargains in second-hand war boats. Thus a U. S. steamer named the Commercial Traveler and belonging to the Philadelphia shipping firm of Moore & McCormack last June became a Colombian war boat. Because its 5,378 tons made it the biggest boat in the Colombian Navy, she was made flagship and renamed the Cacuta. Last week the Cacuta lay at Philadelphia's South Wharves, awaiting $25,000 worth of overhauling. To her there came the staggering humiliation of being attached by a U. S. Deputy Marshal to secure a seaman's claim of $1,000 back wages against the Colombian Navy.

Seaman Robert Green of New York City had won his $1,000 claim before a U. S. District Court. The judge deputed Deputy Marshal Harry Baker to serve the papers on the Cacuta's captain. The marshal found the Colombian captain on the bridge one day last week. He turned out to be one J. R. Hodges, late of Mobile, Ala. An alert newshawk of the Philadelphia Record was on hand to record in dialect the conversation:

Marshal: I'm a U. S. deputy marshal and I have a writ here against this ship.

Captain: Pahdon me, but this heah is a Colombian wah ship.

Marshal: Warship or no warship, I've got this writ and by golly I'm going to serve it.

Captain: If you-all doan git off this heah vessel, Ah'll have mah seamen throw you ovah the side.

The marshal yanked a padlock out of his pocket, snapped it summarily on the ship's rail and intoned: "This ship is seized in the name of the U. S. Government--and don't you dare move it." Then he hopped nimbly over the side and away.

Thereafter Flagship Captain Hodges did not dare to move his padlocked ship for fear of starting international complications and losing his lucrative job as a high-ranking officer in the Colombian Navy.

* South America's crack navies: Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

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