3-082-643 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Trouble in Nicaragua: Admiral Stephenson's Squadron at Corinto, 1895. 'H.M.S. Royal Arthur, [Stephenson's flag-ship]; H.M.S. Satellite; H.M.S. Wild Swan. The dispute between Great Britain and the feeble Spanish Central American Republic of Nicaragua, arising from the unlawful arrest of the British Consul and some other fellow-subjects of ours at Blewfields [ie Bluefields], on the Mosquito shore of the Gulf of Mexico, has reached an acute crisis. Three of our vessels of war...lay at Corinto to enforce the demand of £15,000 to be paid as compensation. This payment being refused,... the guns of those ships were pointed at the town, and twenty boats carried ashore...a strong force of seamen and Royal Marines. The Nicaragua garrison, numbering a couple of hundred, withdrew across the lagoon, and the British troops occupied the Custom House and the barracks, hoisting the British flag without opposition, most of the inhabitants leaving the town...The President of the Republic, General Zelaya, has been endeavouring to get the American Government to interfere, but without effect, though America is just now much interested in the project of the Nicaragua Ship Canal to join the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean navigation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.