The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-10-13
A sEA-FIGHT IN THE FOG.

w aS HISJ ildIC VI tile DIINdIccIlll2
schooner Tigress. She was a vessel
fully equipped 'to make general
reprisals against the goods, ships, and
subjects of the French nation" as the
commission, granted by his Britannia
Majesty, read. She was flush fore and
aft, with a small main hatchWay and
very roomy deck. Her beam was
q feet, and her length 100 feet. She
mounted a 24-pounder on the fore
castle, where there was plenty of
room to work it. Her bulwarks were
six feet high and of extraordinary
thickness. She carried six lS-pound-
ers, three on a side, and four 24-pOund
carrOnades, as well as the two A.
pound chasers, making in all II guns.
Her mainmast was 81 feet high, and
the height from the deck to the top
masthead was very nearly a 100 feet.
She sat low in the water, and but for
her beam, her low free-board would
have threatened a wet ship in a sea-
way but deep as she lay, her upper
sheathing came foot above the point
of immersion, and the metal sparkled
like new gold. Capt. Shelvocke, her
commander, had found no difficulty in
obtaining a crew. The pick of 200
eager volunteers had been chosen, and
every man of the 80 selected was
native of Great Britain.
/ had been aroused at O'Clock one
morning, and, having gone on deck,
had found the dawn bright in the east,
and the schooner, under heavy canvass,
hugging the wind and heading west
and southwest. Indeed, the wind
had chopped around, and was blowing
on the English coast, the nearest
point of which was Dungeness ;
though not only was there no land in
view, but the weather was so thick
that the horizon lay at distance of not
more than two miles around us.
had hoped that when the morning
broke the haze would lift, but when
the sun rose and hung over the sea-
line like the bottom of the newly
secured copper kettle, the fog came
down as thick as feather-bed, and
blew III a stream across the deck. II
was all blank to within three ships
lengths ahead of us. The green sea
came curling and foaming out of the
fog TO windward, but you could not
see one inch beyond the point at
which their forms grew defined, and
they went compiling in curves as
polished as oil to leeward, vanishing
Instantly when they came in contact
with the fog-curtain.
The breeze was warm, but the damp
made it uncomfortable. The decks
were so slippery that it was not easy
to keep ones footing. The moisture
fell in showers from the rigging, and
drops of water formed on the brim OF
my hat as fast as 1 could shake them
of.
AT four bells the watch turned out
TO wash down. There was so man.
men to perform this Job that it was
soon over, and the decks being cleaned
up and the rigging coiled down, the
schooner took more comfortable air
but the fog remained unpleasantly
dense, and sometimes settled down so
thick that the inner iib was not to be
seen from the pinnacle. Fortunately
we had plenty of sea-room.
But fogs of this nature were tolera-
bly, fruitful of disagreeable surprises.
AT any moment an enemy's hooker
might oozC out of the thickness and
be aboard of us. / therefore took
care to see everything clear and
stationed some experienced hands as
lookout men, keeping my own
"wether eye lifting" as wO say at sea.
we knew there was large French
corvette in the neighborhoOd, mount
ing very heavy batteries and a great
deal too big for us to handle; and il
would be no great joke for the FOG to
suddenly clear and expose the beauty
lying close enough to deliver broad
side before we could give the schooner
canvass enough to get away.
Shortly before eight bells Shelvocke
came on deck, and seeing how matters
stood, and that the breeze was drop-
ping, the order was passed along for
the men to keep silence, also for no
bells TO be struck, and for the leadman
TO speak his report in a low tone to a
hand stationed by his side for the
purpose of bringing his messages aft
10 the officer III charge. In addition
20 this, the fore-sail was securely brazil
ed up, and the stay-sail and inner-iiL
hauled down to silence their Tapping
and the schooner, under her main-sai
and standing jib, glided slowly vi
and down over the breathing swell
as silent as a dead-house. and amid 2
fog as impenetrabie as blanket.
AT O'Clock l went to breakfast
''This fog is very bothersOme," saiC
l, CHANGING up az the skylight thatla
like squares of smoked glass over the
cabin.
The second mate left the cabin, and
returned after an absence of a few
minutes. Chick as mud, strand there,
very little wind, and there's no APP
pearance of it clearing" lie went OF
deck again, aud after Shelvocke and ]
had hung over the chart a few min
utes we followed him.
1t was my watch below, but l haC
no mind TO turn in. The fog was II
ritating and burdensome. Iconsider
ed 1T my duty to be on the alert. Al
though there was very little wind the
fog blew across the deck in hOrizonta
lines it was As white as steam, bu
not the more penetrable for that
Sometimes it would open a little il
folds and disclose the water for abou
a cables length from the side of the
vessel, lying as white as though i
We're full Of chalk sediment, and no
blur u )on il, though there was
small ground-swell, upon which tn,
schooner rose and sank slugeishly, Du
quite noiselessly, as everything haC
been hauled taut aloft, and the sheet
flattened in TO prevent the canvas
from shaking. For the most part
however, the fog hung around anC