Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-05-24

lshman only tended so far to make the
object of her cruise more and more mysteri-
Gus. AS she left the side of one vessel to sail
for that of another up went the English s.jack, -
and as she approached the ships the captain
of the w. III. Chandler noticed that it sud-
denly disappeared.
The vessel that was lying next to the one bv
Capt. Gage having received due share of at
tention from the considerate visitor, she now
headed for the w. ii. Chandler, showing that
it was not her intention that single one
should remain isolated or forgotten. AS she
left the side of the ship she had just been
alongside and came bounding swiftly towards
the bark, Capt Gage, who was seated near the
| stern on the quarter deck of his bark looked
| out for the hosting of the g Jack" but the
motions of the boat did not seem to be alto
| gether so regularly conducted for the hour or
two preceding the present movement as they
had been throughout the early part of the
day, and an additional proof to some, which
Capt. Gage had previously noticed, was now
evident, for the British flag was not hoisted
| on this occasion. On the boat nearing the
side of the bark, the captain perceived that
! she had upwards of twelve men on board and
| on their approaching still nearer he discover
| ed by their appearance that they formed part
| OF the crew of man-of-war that one of them
had on naval uniform that the familiar flag
! was lying there, and finally that firearms
were lying on the bottom of the craft. The
boat herself was a long, stoutly built " gig"
No sooner was she close to the bark than she
lay alongside and the man in uniform jumped
on board the w. III. Chandler in the most
rough and ready" manner. The mate of
the bark, who was standing near the main
mast, said, . Sir. there is a ladder at the other
side of the vessel that you might have used -
but the officer said, Oh, no matter no mat
ter" and then stumbling a little as the ripple
on the barbor caused the bark to move, and
said addressing these in the boat, come on,
look sharp" whereupon unconth blue jackets
bounced over the bulwarks of the vessel as so
many porpoises would over the foam of one of
the pillows of their native element. The Off
Ger stont red face man, above five feet
seven inches in height. His uniform was the
dull blue cloth. jacket and pantaloons of the
officers of the British navy. There were stripes
of gilt lace in different parts of both garments,
and two thick gilt cords running over each
shoulder from the collar to the socket of the
arm. The dress of the seamen was not uni
form, hut the blue shirt or jacket was visible
on every one of them. After the commander
of the party had superintendent the transfer of
this division of his forces from the boat to the
deck of the bark, he said in quick tone of
voice, which he addressed to the mate, care
you the captain of this bark?" To which the
mate replied, "No, sir" and then added,
pointing to the quarterback, where the cap
tain was seated, cycling closely the motions of
the visitors, 1" there's the captain aft" The
lieutenant then walked up to where Captain
Gage, was seated and the following interview
took place
Offcer-How do you do, Captain?
Captain Gage, rising from his seat-Well.
thank you.
Olicer-Will You give me the use of a light
for few moments?
Captain Gage-Certainy.
The captain, having ordered light to be
brought to the visitor, returned to the after
part of the vessel, where he was followed by
the bearer of the lamp. On entering the cabin
for some purpose, it is worthy of note that he
was followed thither by the officer of the Eng
fish navy without the shadow of ceremony. |
The captain noticed that the officer had an I'M |
usually strong flavor of some Intoxicating |
beverage from his breath, and therefore he now
asked him if he would have gin instead of wa |
ter, of which he asked Il drink. The lieuten- |
ant instantly and as though by instinct respon-
ded to this, Z" Yes yes, prefer it," and when |
the drink had received hasty but nevertheless |
thorough consideration by the British officer, |
he said, g | want to go below to see what you |
have on board" Now the captain thought |
that he should say something, so he asked |
what the object of seeing his vessel was. To |
this the officer replied that he was an officer |
from an English man-of-war, and that he had |
searched all the vessels in the harbor, as he |
was directed. When below, the officer took |
note book out of his pocket, TO which was at
tached other materials convenient for writing, |
and he then said, "What is this vessels |
name?' Nv. III. Chandler" said the captain. |
"Who are the owners?" he then asked
"There are great many owners-so many |
that could not begin to tell you their names"
replied the captain. Cant you tell the name /
of one of them ~ he asked. "Why are you |
so inquisitive?' returned Captain Gage. Il |
am bound to get all these par IT, sh" an
marked the captain. a. Your name ~ said the |
officer. ALBERT Gage" returned the captain. |
" Where does the vessel hail from ?" contn- |
we'd the catechst. % Providence, Rhode Is |
land" returned Capt. Gage. is that under |
the American flag ?" inquired the English |
Lieutenant. Long ago, when was a boy" |
the captain informed the examiner, II learned |
in Geography that it one of the United |
States, and the last time | was in Rhode Is |
land it was under the American flag" where |
is the bark from nowy' said the officer. "Sa- |
qua Ia Grande, " rejoined the captain. where |
is she bound to on this passage? ?" demanded |
the Lieutenant. New York" answered Cap |
tain Gage. "What does your cargo consist |
of?' inquired the officer. Sugar and molas- |
SEES" rejoined the captain.
With this the conversation ended, and the |
officer then went about peering at the cargo |
in different parts of the ships hold Having |
satisfied himself and his inquisitive pro-
pensities, and taken care to note everything |
down very scrupulously in bis memorandum,
he returned to the deck. All this time he
was accompanied by the captain, who now
also came on deck. When he arrived in the
open light he asked for the ships papers,
which the captain informed him were at the
consul's on shore, and could be produced if
he was very anxious about having them ex-
amined. mo. no. said he, Il presume they,
like all the rest are all right He then
said, ''Show me your last clearance from a
United States port" The captain then
handed him his clearance papers from New
York, which he circumspectly examined. and
after arriving at the bottom oft. he exclaim-
ed, This is wrong. Ii has no Naval Officers
signature affixed to it," Upon this Captain
Gage corrected the officer by showing him
the initials, at the end of the document OF the
Naval Officer by whom the paper was signed
in New York Upon this the officer was
obliged to admit that he was wrong, after
having given the document more correct
though not less minute perusal.
Everything about the deck of the ship
being sharply looked ut by the officer, he
now said Good bye" and got into the boat
to take his departure. All the men had
taken their seats and the boat was of, the
officer himself saying "All right" On COM
ing back To the spot where the lieutenant had
examined the clearance paper, Capt. Gage
saw lltt All WIS not tneFe |
lay the visitors note book, whose use seemed
to the owner. On making the
discovery the captain hailed the boat, which
was still within hailng distance. and she
was thercupon put about and returned 10 the
bark. Captain Gage then informed his visiter
Of the slight ulistahv" lac thought ne had
made, when the latter seemed very much
astonished at the idae of such a thing for he
would abe id but il was the most impor-
lant thing" he had.
In the meantime. while the captain was
engaged with the lieutenant another CONVEX