with blank cartridge, but seeing that she kept on her course, he fired another shotted cannon at her, and this he repeated three times, Tornado then stopped. He sent on board of her tow boats manned and tow officers to examine her, which was done in due form, although it could not be affirmed positively whether she carried munitions of war or not on account of the great quantity of coal with which she was stowed. The commander made the captain come on board Gerona, and this latter answered the questions that were put to him with insolent and insulting words so that he was obliged to be called to order. He then ordered the said captain to return to Tornado, which was navigated to Cadiz by the 1st Lieutenant Don Manuel del Bustillo, 2nd Lieutenant, four midshipmen, one engineer, and 51 armed men, and the crew of Tornado comprising 55 men, among whom were five Portuguese taken on board at Funchal, were transferred to Gerona. Captain John MacPherson and the crew of Tornado were treated with great severity, both on their way to Cádiz and after their arrival in that city. The case led to negotiations between the British and Spanish governments expressed the opinion that the Spanish government had no right to treat the crew as prisoners of war, much less to chain them up. Spanish service She was brought into Spanish service as Tornado, and rated as screw corvette. During the Ten Years' War, she saw service in Cuban waters and had a notorious incident with the American filibustering steamer Virginius, that had been bought for the purpose of being used for landing military expeditions on Cuba in aid of the insurgents. Virginius had been engaged in this work for months, being even called by one of the Havana newspapers as the famous filibuster steamer Virginius. On 31 October 1873, she was bound from Kingston, Jamaica to some point in Cuba, flying the US flag, and carrying a cargo of war material. Having a crew of 52 (chiefly Americans and Britons) and 103 passengers (mostly Cubans), Virginius was sighted by Tornado, and she immediately fled in a northerly direction toward Jamaica, but was chased by her, captured and taken into Santiago de Cuba. Fifty-three of the crew and passengers were condemned to death by court-martial, and between 4–8 November, were shot; among them were eight American citizens.