1902, May–September 6: (The Firminist Civil War and the Death of Admiral Killick): Boisrond-Canal assumed his accustomed role as midwife of regimes for the l…

1902, May–September 6: (The Firminist Civil War and the Death of Admiral Killick): Boisrond-Canal assumed his accustomed role as midwife of regimes for the last time. Firmin — the very embodiment of neo-Bazelaisist aspirations of the educated, impatient oligarchist young — was already back at the Cap, and Admiral Killick had diverted several thousand new Remingtons and a million rounds of ammunition from the arsenal, taking the whole navy north. Firmin exacted a loan from the merchants of the Cap and on May 18 Nord Alexis marched on Port-au-Prince, but the Boisrond junta tossed an apple of discord between Nord and Firmin by inducting the former but not the latter into the gouvernement provisoire. In June, Firminist troops clashed with those of Nord, and Killick shelled the Cap and put ashore a landing force — but Tonton Nord thrashed everyone in sight and chased the sailors off the beach, followed by Salnave and Firmin himself, improbably disguised as a sailor. Nord Alexis then loosed his men on Firmin’s home, destroying everything — his handsome library, the finest in the Republic containing many rare books of priceless value, and a History of Haiti representing twenty years’ work, was given to the flames. Even Joseph Jérémie, Firmin’s most implacable foe, deplored the outrage, writing privately that to blot out the works of the spirit was to proclaim the sovereignty of ignorance. On September 2, cruising the Gulf of La Gonâve, Killick’s flagship La Crête-à-Pierrot made prize of a German merchantman S.S. Markomannia running arms to the Cap. The Imperial German Government summoned S.M.S. Panther — that same ship which nine years later would precipitate the Agadir crisis — and on the morning of September 6, Panther tracked down La Crête-à-Pierrot heedlessly anchored at Gonaïves. Admiral Killick got into uniform, made his way out to his flagship, directed preparations, and ordered all remaining hands ashore. Alone except for his surgeon Dr. Coles who refused to leave, Killick — draped in the Haitian colors — touched his cigar to a powder train leading to the magazine and sat down in his cabin. Before the boats reached shore, an explosion erupted aft; Captain Eckermann ordered Panther’s guns to fire into the dying ship, and La Crête-à-Pierrot rolled over and settled into the calm waters. Killick’s blackened body was eventually retrieved and, as a suicide, was denied Church rites. Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a personal signal: compliments to Panther.