Litchfield enquirer., 1877-07-26
AN OLD SAILORS YARN.
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
 THE MOST EXCITING TRIP OF THE WAR.

"Bill here, said the Old Sailor, ''has been tellin' me of one of the biggist things in blockade runnin' that occurred durin' the whole war, and if SO be as you likes to order 'em filled up. don't doubts that he may be persuaded for to spin the yarn oyer agaln, it being of kind that Il bear repeatin ''r
 ''She were called, said Bill, as he set his beer-mug empty on the table, Ban shee No. 2, in consequence of the first of that name havin' been catched runnin' in. to Wilmin'ton arter havin' made eight round trips successfully. and paid for herself four times over. Her captain s name was Steele, and he were rightly nam- cd, for he were the pluckiest skipper run with durin' them times.
 "He was took when the Banshee was catcllcd and sent to New York, speadin' some weeks in Ludlow strocb jail, and when he got out he found that his owners had builded this here other boat express ly for him, and they called her Banshee No. 2, and gets chance into her as sec- ond mate in Havana, bound to Calves ton.
 E "He waited couple of days arter we was all ready to start, tryin' for to get a pilot. There was plenty offerin', but it was dreadful hard for to git 8, good one. The wages was high and all paid in ad- vance, so if craft got saddled with bad one that didn't know nothin' there weren't no help for it, and men of the right sort that did know weren't plenty, not by no means.
 However, at last we secured long, slab-sided, shiver-the .mizzen, which had been all his life tradln' atwixt New Or leans and Galveston, and one sure to know the way if anyone would.
 Well, sir, we steamed out of Sunday afternoon, the new boat behavin' splendid and going at pace that would show her starn to anythin' most that foated, let alone one of them tortoise-like Yankee men-of.war.
 3 s'The only thing as recollects on that happened goin' over were tempest which we got the second night out. We'll, I thought I'd seen lightnin' and heern thun- der afore this, but this here were the flash. inest lightnin' and the thumpinest thun- der that ever seen.
 ''The worst of blockade runnin' on that coast were the fogs, which purvented ob. servations; and so, arter you got in on the coast, there were no way of tellin' where away you was. We was bothered this way for two days, knockin' about. tryin' for to git hold of somethin', so as to know where we was The worst of thls were the draw it made on to the coal pile. 5 You see. you couldn't get coal in Calves. ton. and so you had for to look out and keep enough into the bunkers for to go 1 back with; and many a wage was spilled by havin' to go back for coal, owin' to ! bein' detained in these here fogs.
 ''The third day. as we was backin' 'and . fillin' about, we stumbled onto 8 man-of. war. and we run up pretty nigh hard onto her. hOpin' for to see the rest of the fleet, go as we might know we was of the har- Dor. We wern't afeared of her, bless you, cause we knowed we could run her out of sight in g short time. As soon as she see us she got under way and come for us, but we jist turned our starn to her and went ahead full speed, and in quar- ter of hour she were lost in the fog. Still, we was glad we seen her, cause we knowed we wasn't far of the entrance.
 .sNext day He stuck her in on soundins and run the beach down. Coin along, we seen large paddle-wheel steamer hard and fast ashore. and 'cognized her as a boat as had left Havana two days afore us. and here she were piled and her wages ended. We run close into her, and tried to signalize the beach, but they didn't understand our code, and so couldn't tell us where we was. We stop ped the engines and let her drift in with the swell as close as we dared to, and when we rang togo ahead up comes the engineer and reports somethin' wrong with the engine, and we must anchor for 3 spelltill he could fix it.
 Here were predicary; we had three fathoms under us, and we let go the an- chors but she where so close to the shore thak we couldn't give her much scope, and ln the heavy swell there were hardly a chance for us to hold on.
 'The old pilot he funked awful. 'Hur- ry 'em up. captain says he; 'hurry,'em nP. or vel all go to hell together in ten minutes time.
 They'll get ready as soon as they can, says the old man, quiet; in fact, he were the only man aboard, I reckon. that dld not lose. his head somewhat. We kep> lead over the side and seen by the way the line trended that he was driftin' sioWly and surely on the beach.
 Then come the engineer again. Can nave ten minutes more?' says he. Yes, twenty if you want lem. says the oia man; scan you be ready in ten minu-
 ":I can sir. was the reply.
 All right, says the old man; 'man the eapstan all hands, and stand by for to run the anchor up quick
 | slf you want to have min;ks saem Eke