Cuban Involvement
In 1895, Broward, his brother, and an associate began building a new steamboat, The Three Friends. The builder was John Joseph Daly. During the construction, Cuban insurrectos began fighting for independence from Spain. Broward was approached by a prominent member of Jacksonville's Cuban community about shipping a load of munitions and some Cuban expatriates from Nassau to Cuba. Broward agreed, and in January 1896, The Three Friends shipped out of Jacksonville on her maiden voyage, bound for Cuba.
Broward continued this filibustering operation until President William McKinley declared war on Spain. Several times he was nearly caught and destroyed by Spanish gunboats; the Spanish ambassador to the United States demanded that Broward be stopped and his ship impounded. U.S. authorities attempted to do just that, but Broward managed to thwart them, by loading The Three Friends under cover of darkness in secluded locations, by hiding her behind larger ships as she left the St. Johns, and by picking up Cubans and munitions from other ships at various points near the mouth of the river. Except when trying to evade capture, though, Broward never pretended not to be a filibusterer, and gained notoriety around the state for his deeds.
Read more about this topic: Napoleon B. Broward
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