No. 211.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L.
West.
Washington, August 18, 1886.
Sir: Grave cause of complaint is alleged by the masters of several American fishing vessels, among which can be named the schooners Shiloh and Julia Ellen, against the hostile and outrageous misbehavior of Captain Quigley, of the Canadian cruiser Terror, who, upon the entrance of these vessels into the harbor of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, fired a gun across their bows to hasten their coming to, and placed a guard of two armed men on board each vessel, who remained on board until the vessels left the harbor.
In my note to your legation of the 9th instant I made earnest remonstrance against another unfriendly act of Captain Quigley, against the schooner Battler, of Gloucester, Mass., which, being fully laden and on her homeward voyage, sought shelter from stress of weather in Shelburne Harbor, Nova Scotia, and was then compelled to report at the custom-house, and have a guard of armed men kept on board.
Such conduct cannot be defended on any just ground, and I draw your attention to it in order that Her Britannic Majesty’s Government may reprimand Captain Quigley for his unwarranted and rude act.
It was simply impossible for this officer to suppose that any invasion of the fishing privileges of Canada was intended by these vessels under the circumstances.
The firing of a gun across their bows was a most unusual and wholly uncalled for exhibition of hostility, and equally so was the placing of armed men on board the peaceful and lawful craft of a friendly nation.
I have, &c.,