The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-03-18

rushed below to extingnish the flames
Instantly Abner Taft and his seventeen
co-conspirators sprang like tigers on
| the rest of the watch. Some were
stabbed straight to the heart with
long clasp.knives; some were stran-
gled with fell, deadly grasp; some
were hurled overheard into the seething
foam. The gigantic Marbleheader flung
three men over the rail as if they had
been infants. No sounds were heard, so
swift and pitiless WIS the execution, ex-
cept some terrible gasp or hiccough Of a
dying wretch. In moment Taft and
his followers were masters of the decks.
Instantly the hatchways and cabin were
closed, spiked fast and barricaded. The
deck carronades, which were always
kept loaded. were dragged into position
so as to command all avenues of egress
for those confined below. While can
noneers stood by the pieces with lighted
linstocks the rest of the mutiReers pro-
ceeded to get the vessel about.
Abner Taft jammed the helm hard up
and dashed it fast while he ordered the
men to let go the lee-braces and square
the yards The head of the gallant YES
sci paid of rapidly and soon she headed
northwest. As the daring ringleader
atterward said with an unseemly profan-
ity, he was bound either for hell or Bos.
ton harbor."
In the meanwhile the crew below ex-
tinguished the fire after hard fight, but
found themselves imprisoned, while the
mysterious noises on deck told them of
some remarkable event having trans.
PRED. At first Capt Scott and his
lieutenants, in the stupidity of their de-
bauch, had failed to notice the strange
events going on above them, but the noise
of the hammers spiking the matches, the
rolling of the carronades and the flap
ping of the yards impressed at last their
drunken senses with the alarming truth.
With the instincts of discipline and
obedience the crew, in their alarm and
Amusement, waited for orders from their
superiors.
They had not long to wait. Capt. Scott,
though u tyrant, lacked neither courage
nor energy. With torrent of fierce i'm
precautions he ordered his men to cut
their way out to the decks. While the
axes were piled furiously stern voice
above was heard ringing out like trum-
pet of doom:
"Keep doom below for your lives!
There be six cannon-mouths guarding tn
hatches," said Abner Taft.
"Ill cut every bit of flesh of: your
bones, you devils" said the English Cap
tain, foaming at the mouth with rage.
Again, to his imprisoned men: "Cut, cut
for your lives"
The axes flew in the hands of the En-
glish and soon they had chopped the
matches in fragments. AS they thronged
up the carronades were discharged at
close range and an awful silence fol-
lowed, broken with low means. The
slaughter had been fearful. The hatch
ways were again closed and fastened.
Three different attempts were made by
the English crew to break forth, attended
with similar results. In one of these
Capt. Scott and his officers succeeded in
escaping from the durance of the cabin
and, stung into reckless fury, charged
with sword and pistol on the fierce band
that held the decks.
Abner Taft met his chief prosecutor,
cutlass in hand, and sharp, short COM
bat was ended by terrible stroke which
beat down Capt. Scott's guard and Glove
his head to the very jaw. Those
bloody stripes were at last avenged!
The other officers shared like fate,
as they fought with a logged cour-
age that refused quarter. But why pro.
long the bloody and monotonous record,
and describe the truitless efforts of the
English crew to recover the advantage!
Suffice it that Destiny smiled, as she
so often does on deeds of apparently
hopeless daring, on the exploit of the
NJ al bleh hero and his followers. The
winds were fair and light, so that there
was not much difficulty in working the
ship, and all things conspired to the
hoped-for end. Abner Taft had laid the
ships course as nearly as possible for
Boston, and his fishing experiences had
made him familiar with the Massachu-
sets waters.
So at the end of the second day from
the uprising the good townsmen of Bos-
ton were amazed and alarmed at seeing
a British sloop.of-war come into the har-
Dor, the hated ensign flying at the fore.
There were bustlings and congregations
of fearful faces. There was still deeper
amazement, mingled with Joy, when the
union-jack was lowered and the Ameri-
can flag went to the fore in its stead, for
the Marblehead men had improvised ma
were bonfires, and ringing of bells, and
0AAOoG IL AC.JoASAuSS OSC1 tAC ACAO VI
Marblehead, and he and his two COM
rades were escorted to their ma
tive town by great procession.
He had fulfilled his promise to his
beautiful wife Martha, to come home
again before she had all the apples
strung for the winters use.
The silent influence of this magnificent
act might easily have had most potent
effect in stimulating the legislation which
looked toward the founding Of our infant
navy. There is, however, no record or
allusion to it in the public annals. The
tradi ion says that Abner Taft afterward
commanded privateer, but his name is
unknown except by those who have
heard the oral legend. His after-career,
however, must have been daring and
heroic one, and borne splendid if in
recognized fruit.-Appleton's Journal.