The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-04-12
A Plucky American shIpmaster.

One of your correspondents, 1 observe,
says that he never knew of colored
mate on board of respectable ship.
When in China, many years ago, I met
Captain Salisbury, Of Providence. L
think his ship was called the Washing
ton. His chief mate was full blooded
African. It seems that his late mate
had been caught asleep in his watch,
and had otherwise given offense to
Salisbury, who told him that If he was
ever again found asleep in his watch he
should be put into the galley and that
the cook should be promoted to his
place. 1t was thus that there happened
to be black man as mate on board the
Washington. On his way home on that
or some other voyage he encountered q
cyclone near Madagascar, and lost
pretty much all his spars; that is 10 say,
be was dismasted fore and aft, leaving
only ten or twenty feet of his lower
masts standing; but Salisbury was not
given to panic, and he carefully saved
most of his sails, blocks, rigging, and
portions of her spars. The gale soon
moderated, and the ship did not leak.
Before anything could be done 10 make
sail q fine French ship came along and
sent boat to the Washington, offering
to take off the crew, but Salisbury
laughed at the idea, and said: ''Give
me few bolts of canvas, q spar or two,
and shall be all right" The French
man complied, and inquired where he
intended to put in 10 refit. The EN-.
phatic answer was, Amsterdam, for
which port have signed bills of lading."
The Frenchman left him, and in very
few days the Washington was so rugged
as to be able to carry sail about equal to
double-reefed topsails and courses, jib
and spanker. when approaching the
coast of England one morning the same
French ship was seen close by all
a@taunt-ho, excepting the loss of his
gallant mast He had, as
usual with French ships of that day,
visited the Cape of Good Hope, st.
Helena, and perhaps Ascension. Sauls-'
bury hailed, saying: al see you are in
distress; where do you mean to put in
for repairsp" In those days ships were
not abandoned when they met with
grave accidents.
Another anecdote of Salisbury can
vouch for. He was driven on shore in
. ssTay-foong" in the vicinity of Cum
singmoon, not very far west Of Lintin,
China. The tide was very high, and
when the gale subsidized the Washington
was found high and dry q hundred feet
OF more from salt water. Salisbury re-
moved all his ballast, the ship having
no cargo on board, stripped the ship of
everything save lower masts and ground
tackle, hired an army of laborers, male
and female, and began to dig 8 dock, ,leav-
ing an embankment on the outer side !;
about this time Mr.. Dent, the chief Of
one of the prominent English houses at
Canton, and the agent Of o local insur-
ance company, anchored his little boat
near by and came TO pay Salisbury q
visit. He expressed the opinion that all
this was labor lost, and that the ship
could never be hoated. Salisbury re-
piled, She must conss of; she IS not
ensured" Suffice it to say the big mud
hole was made, anchors were got out
and planted, well backed, and when q
high tide came the embankment was re-
moved and the ship was foated.-R. b.
Forbes, in Boston Journal.