Re: Nicaraguan steamer BLANCA
Posted by:
airintel (IP Logged)
Date: February 07, 2018 02:01PM
Thanks Andreas, I knew you would have plenty of information. As for OMETEPE, this is from New York Tribune, 31 March 1904:
"The Ometepe arrived here (Havana) with a crew of twenty, and shipped forty more Spaniards. She was formerly owned by the Morgan Line and named the Ambrano. She was sold to a fruit company, and afterwards passed into the hands of insurgents in Honduras. She was burned, but repaired, and last year sold to Nicaragua.
The schooner Gertrude Bartlett cleared from here this morning with a secret cargo, and it is said on good authority that she waited outside the harbor to be taken in tow by the Ometepe."
The New Orleans Times Democrat, 26 Apr 1904 states Ometepe was "formerly the American steamship Esther."
Another article in the St. Bernard Voice (Arabi, Louisiana) 14 May 1904 gives further description:
"The Ometepe has had a varied existence. She was formerly the Norwegian ship Phoenix, which ran aground in the Caribbean Sea and was wrecked. She was sold on the reef to Adler & Co., brought to New Orleans for repairs and by special act of Congress her name and flag were changed. She became the Esther which then floated the Stars & Stripes and was owned by the United Fruit Company, which disposed of her to the Nicaraguan government. The vessel was then converted to a gunboat - to all appearances a gun-less gunboat."
New Orleans Times-Democrat, 31 January 1905:
"Excepting for light armament, the Ometepe is little more than a fruit vessel...when taken over by the government she was thoroughly overhauled and her armament put in position. This consists of six Krupp guns, all of competitively small calibre.
...when bought by the Nicaraguan government was named the Blanca. She did not remain the Blanca long, for the Nicaraguans decided to rename her Ometepe, in honor of a famous battle fought in that country."
The last reference I see to her is a 13 July 1910 Associated Press article which says the gunboats Blanca and Ometepe will bombard Half Moon Cay to support the assault on the rebels there.
So the second Blanca you cite was actually the Ometepe. Apparently there was some confusion between her and the Dialogue Blanca, and no one got the information the original Blanca was renamed Ometepe.
Kind regards,
Dave Wright