Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1861-04-26
aalistcllanrnu1.
A PRIVATEER'S STORY.


The following singular night adventure
in the harbor OF Grenada, anl the narrow
c,capc from capture of the Motel Priva-
tacr the ~ ankee, Of Bristol, Il. L., has
never before, to my knowlelse, been recor-
del, save in the log book Of that fortunate
little cruiser.
| will therefore tell the story in tn
word, OF her brave old commander, as |
gathered it from his own lips.
1t was in the last week of December,
ISl2. SAID Captain Wilson, and while run
Hins up to Havana, that we fell in with a
Newport cruiser, who reported that the is
and, or rather the port of st. George
Town, WIS, at that moment, i'll the occa-
plney of the Americans That he had
sailed from the place only two dAys before,
anl left in the harbor one of our trigates
an two -Ioops Of war, while the stars anl
stripes were hyin5 from the flagstaff of
the oil fort the same day b5arled
Spanish droger, the skipper of which had
seen the vessels of war sailing into the
port at the TIM stated by the prisateers,
man.
What object oar fleet coall have had In
taxing formal possession Of this insignii-
ant place, could not immagine, unless
it wa- for the sake of obtaining fresh sup
plies. At all events, WAS glad to hear
Of it, as was myseliin need OF proyis-
ion,. concluded 10 make the harhor,
anl purchase such supplies a. might re-
3uirc.
1t Yl. n;.at be.aee - nal tn hal
hat II, | was arIulia;5i with tha entrance
of the harhor Of st. George Town, did
not fire a gan for pilot, but kept boldly
on Into the outer port,
Tho night va. quite dark, and a hazy
mist hanging over the water rendered the
ohscurity 80 great that no object could be
perceived couple of cable lengths oil
Ny sharpest youngsters were constantly
on the lookout, but no vessels to be seen,
as W. gIidcd slowly and silently past the
shore batteries AMI the fort beyond, into
the smooth water Of the inner bay.
.is We reached this point, the haze, lift
ing little, showed us, at little distance,
the faint outlines Of large ship, which |
doubted not WAS the American frigate;
and little beyond several other smaller
vessels could be distinguished.
Scarcely had We made this discovery,
than the people on board this ship were
made aware Of our approach, and hailed
Us, inquiring who we Were.
The American privateer Yankee |
replied. What ship is that.
No answer was returned and Suppos-
ing the question was not heard | waited
till we hal run further into the harbor
before repeated it.
We had passed between the fort and
the ship, and were in the act Of Glowing
up. when a voice from the other vessel
cried out
"Laif, LuT, there the priyatecr"
Supposing, naturally enough that We
were running into shoa water, | shouted
10 the man at the wheel
Hard down the helm
aye, aye sir ~
Scarcely was the order oboyed, than the
schooner, answering to the helm, showed
her bows deep and fast into sand bank,
where she remained immovable.
This, Of course, immediately excited
our suspicious that all was not right; for
the pretended caution to "lutf,," was doubt
lessly given 10 produce exactly the result
it had.
"rm afraid, sir" said my first officer,
stcppins to my side, and speaking low,
that we are now really in for it That
ship, sir, is an Enslishman, or I'm greatly
mistaken
1--WE no doubt of it myself sir, now
The treacherous knave has got Us into a
scrape ny that raseally signal. But she's
probably prize of the American trigatc,
and is now lying under her guns"
But its strange, though, that a pris-
oner should be permitted to mislead YES
sci entering port
At this moment boat was seen to
leave the ship, and pulling good distance
around our stern. made directly for the
mole under the fort.
Scarcely ten minutes elapsed after the