An Unequal Clash 136 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord some attention to it."66 One reported incident gives credence to this report. On 26 May the Peavey Steamship Company freighter Frank T. Hefflefinger arrived in Buffalo Harbor with a grain cargo and a crew of non-union sailors. While loading a cargo of coal for the return trip, the crew discovered four sticks of dynamite stuffed into the discharge pipe of the ballast pump. Though the fuse had gone out, the location indicated a knowledge of where such sabotage would cause maximum damage. R.M. Mulfor, Peavey's Buffalo marine insurance broker, added that even with a criminal investigation an explosion would have likely been ruled the result of defective boilers, and not deliberate sabotage.67 These actions demonstrated the tenuousness of union leadership's ability to control the strike and a growing level of internal fragmentation. As a further sign of the disintegration of solidarity, racial and nativist ethnic discrimination, though prevalent before the strike now intensified. The Cleveland dock operative noted that among striking firemen animus towards African- Americans had grown: "but I believe if niggers were put on the boats that the fun would commence around her, as this is general talk all around and it would be the hardest blow to the unions they have had...they don't like them any how and from indications it would cause the dock hands to take action if they were used."68 August brought a dockworker riot in Fort William, Ontario with strikers building barricades and exchanging fire with police. Local authorities sounded the alarm that open rebellion was at hand. The strikers held out without support until the arrival of military units and a declaration of martial law. The strikers were recent Greek immigrants and particularly unpopular among native-born dockworkers. Accused of not listening to reason, officials and local unions portrayed the violence as the Greek workers supposed "thirst for blood." Though other strikers could return to work, Greeks were not rehired.69 Lake Seamen's Union locals had fragmented in Buffalo over the desire to exclude Polish and other Eastern European immigrants from being members. Even when eager to join the union, immigrant sailors were viewed as merely being part of the vessel owners' tactics to push out native-born sailors.70 During the fall, demand for ore increased and a bumper crop of grain flooded the market at record levels creating great need for tonnage.71 Compared to the meagre sums the sailors' union could provide to strikers, the surge of new berths drew even union stalwarts away. Allied unions provided some contributions, but the sheer number of strikers on the Lakes made their efforts insufficient to meet demand. In November, the union slashed strike benefits for the winter months in 66 Operative Report, 2 May 1909, Box 4, OWPDC-BGSU. 67 "Dastardly Attempt," DEH, 28 May 1909. 68 Operative Report, 6 May 1909, Box 4, OWPDC-BGSU. 69 "Dock Strikers Shot By Police," TB, 11 August 1909; "Ft. William, Ontario Under Martial Law," MDMJ, 13 August 1909; "Order is Restored," DEH, 13 August 1909. 70 "Men Will Return to Work on Docks," CPD, 13 August 1909. 71 "Ore Shipments Break Record," DFP, 6 September 1909; "Many Boats Being Built," DEH, 6 September 1909; "Moved More Than 7,000,000," CPD, 5 October 1909.