Almost as foggy as Narragansett Bay fortnight ago when Coast Guard launch 290 sprayed the Black Duck with machine gun fire, killing three of her four occupants, were the facts of this latest episode in Federal liquor suppression. Agreed: the Black Duck was a rumrunner with 500 cases aboard; her stern was peppered with bullets from C. G. 290. Coast Guard claim: a siren first warned the Black Duck to stop; she tried to escape; a one-pound shot failed to halt her; machine gun fire was a last resort; the Black Duck either veered her course or rose on a wave crest to catch the full volley of lead.
Claim of the Black Duck's lone survivor: no warnings to halt were given; the crew "didn't have a chance."
Four distinct reverberations followed:
Washington. Rear-Admiral Frederick C. Billard, Commandant of the Coast Guard, declared: "The Coast Guard's job cannot be handled with soft words and amiable gestures. . . . The Coast Guard is used to carrying out its duty with vigor and determination. . . It means business. ... If a smuggler elects to defy the command to stop, he runs a serious risk of getting hurt."
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, returning to Washington from a Bahamian cruise, read reports and declared: "The Coast Guard gave the craft warning. It was endeavoring to escape and the Coast Guard could not do less than it did. . . . If the Coast Guard couldn't shoot, they couldn't carry out their instructions."
New London. At the Coast Guard base is stored some $500,000 worth of seized liquor. On the night of the Black Duck episode, the service brought in the Flor del Mar, loaded with liquor and in a sinking condition. Hastily she was unloaded, and soon her contraband cargo began to appear in New London speakeasies at $2 per bottle. Some Coast Guardsmen became drunk and rowdy. The base commander put a guard around his station, leveled destroyer searchlights upon it. Each guardsman "going ashore" was thoroughly searched at the gate to prevent liquor smuggling out of the base. The gate kiosk was stacked with miscellaneous bottles. General courts martial were ordered with 24 guardsmen involved in charges of intoxication, or pilfering liquor.
Two guardsmen leaving the base were mistaken for the crew of the C. G. 290, were beaten up back of the freight yards by seven hard-faced men.
Boston. Into Faneuil Hall, famed Revolutionary "Cradle of Liberty," shoved and pushed a great crowd to mass their protests against the Black Duck killings, to hear speakers compare the "Newport Massacre" with the slaying of Crispus Attucks on March 5, 1770, by British redcoats. Market-men in white aprons and straw hats heard William H. Mitchell, chairman, exclaim: "When stark wholesale murder stalks abroad under the guise of any law, in God's name repeal that law!"