The Winchester weekly appeal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1856-1856, 1856-07-19
A Lcnky Ship Settling to Sink.

A few weeks since taking advan.
tage of a political calm, the Democra-
cy towed out an old hulk which had
been doing dock service twenty odd
years, and made her their flag ship
She is called the James Buchanan and
was originally built for the Federal
trade; but was bought for triflc by
the present owners who thought that
there might be money in her. After
full trial and sufficient proofthat she
was dull sailor that steered like q
raft--besides being accounted by all
scattering men an unlucky craft-shc
was employed about the harbor as a
sort Of store ship, in which capacity
she attracted no particular attention
But as we have intimated, being in
need of a flagship, her owners, the
other day put the carpenters, painters
and Triggers to work upon her, and in q
short time, she came out as gaudy as
you please, with any quantity of fresh
paint above her water line, a set of
masts that raked like fore-and-aft
Baltimore schooner's, and figure.
head that folks at first thought was
intended to represent a classical per-
sonage-the god Janus-but which
turned out to be only the dual-phiz-
zed goddess, Nebraska-KanSas. In
spite of paint and new rig, however,
every old salt recognized the well
known lines of the old lubber, which
had been the byc-word ola couple of
generations of tars-and he shook his
head and declared that it was no use
to clipper-rig Chinese junk or try to
paim out bad luck ind rotten timbers!
So they provisioned the old craft for
the cruise, and the stores were not all
on board before she commenced to
make water, a little. This, though,
was little noticed, and she stood out of
the harbor, before a gentle breeze,
with all sails set and amid the hurras
ofthousands spectators. Fora very
short space the sea was perfectly calm,
and the old ship sailed smoothly on I'M
til she came in hail OF a new, dashing;
saucy, piratical craft, called the FIRE.
MONT At this .juncture, a large por-
ton ofthe crew--a body Of Germans
who had been shipped for the voy-
age at high wages and with special
privileges, suddenly bctook them
selves to the boats, swearing that the
Buchanan was neither sound nor lucky,
and Immediately joined the pirate.
Short handed, now, and the breeze
stillcnirg, the sea beginning to roll
heavily. the old ship began to pitch
and ro!! sadly, when the officers COM
mcnccl talking about shifting some
Of the ballast to trim her better. But
at this moment, it was discovered that
an old leak had sprung new, (from a
fraud practised in the caulking by GER
tain contractors known as squatter
sovercigns.) OF course, all hands
We're ordered to duty at the pumps
and when last seen, the unfortunate
vessel was supposed to have at least
six feet water in the hold, while sig
nails of distress were flying. She was
evidently settling to sink. The Ere
mont was standing off and on, within
short hail, but, it was supposed, only
with the intention ofrescuing such of
the passengers AMI crew as might at.
tac} themselves to the spars, barrels,
etc, and attempt to make for her,
The commander of the Buchanan
wished to borrow a few hands to man
his pumps and rest his own crew, but
Capt Greely refused the favor.
The officers and owners ofthe Buch-
anan will deserve their fate, for going
to sea themselves, and taking with
them large number of innocent per-
sons, in an old, worm-eaten hulk con-
demned as unseaworthy more than
twenty years ago!--1Nontgomery Mail.
We insist on it, that the Union and
American answer our questions: First,
did not Ex-Governor A. V. Brown, "de-
clare in the Baltimore Democratic
Convention, four years ago, that
Buchanan's nomination would disband
the Democratic party"
Second. Did he not say that it was
too much to ask the party to pack old
Bucks federalism against such q man
as Scott"
Come gentlemen call on Mr.. Brown,
and see how these things stand. You
may as well do it at once, as we shall
harrass you, if you decline, as i've did
on the Romish question.-Nash. Ga.
z2tte.