The National tribune., 1882-04-08

to give Hle WGlULen OTueT 10 tndt eHeCu,
but Re would not. 1 then told him / was
going, and he might sink me. At last he
told me to 60 and lose the vessel if / wanted
30. At ten o'clock in the morning we got
up steam and worked across the bar, and
headed for Galveston, which was then
bl0ckaded by seventeen ships of war. In
going out we worked the wheels by hand,
SO that the paddles would make no noise,
for about mile, as we could see a
vessels mastheads and then hooked on
and steamed away. We had an excellent
pilot on board, and as I was standing near
him l remarked "Now we are outside, [
think we can get her in Galveston to-day"
He thought it
TOO RISKY,
but pushed her. We had run forty miles,
when the fog lifted partially, and the fleet
could be dimly seen in the distance. [
determined to make the dash, and if l could
not make the channel, at least I could run
her up on the beach and destroy her so that
she would not fall in to the enemy's hands.
We put full head of steam on and passed
through the fleet safely and went up to Gal
weston, thus running two blockades in one
day, 4 thing never done before. Here we took
in a large cargo of cotton and started out for
Havana in company with the Harriet Lane,
which had been captured by the Texans,
and the steamship Isabel. 1t was a dark
night and was blowing quite hard in fact
most disagreeable weather. was sitting on
the capstan and the mate was heaving the
lead. 1t soon showed deep water, and l told
him to lay it by as we were safe outside.
Just as / spoke the whole heavens seemed
to be lit up with the blue fires burning on
the war vessels. We were pointing directly
for big man-of-war, and we changed our
course and ran close to him. We were so
near he could not depress his guns so as to
hit US, although he tried hard. l was stand
ing
IN TIE PILoT-HOUsE
when the wind of the solid shot knocked me
down as if / had been struck. Everybody
thought I was dead, but the shock passed
off in a moment. In a minute and a half
Eve were outside of him, going for all we
for Havana. The next morning our three
vessels were in sight, and astern of us was
big man-of-war giving chase. They SEEM
ed to recognize the Harriet Land, and
steamed apparently for her. After he had
chased her for couple of hours, we ran
| to leeward to get out of sight OF him. AS
the Lane began to leave hirs he took for us,
! the Isabel now being out of sight, and was
| inst in sight of him. We could barely see
| him. As / was to the leeward, he set all
SAIL and he had plenty of it, and headed
directly for us. The vessel was the Katah-
| din. | soon saw he was going three feet to
nv one, and so called the mate and told
him our only chance lay in crossing his bow,
so that he would have the wind in his eye
| and would have to take in his sails. We
| altered our course, and headed to cross his
bow, he being then ten miles off He kept
pointing up and up, his sails still being full,
! and he continued to close on u.s. 1t was
! difficult to say whether we would get across
/ his bows or not, and if we failed we would
then be exposed to his broadside and surely
h.
about as close a shave as l ever want to see.
We crossed him about quarter Of mile
off, and as soon as he saw it he took in sail
! and headed directly for us, both going for
! all we were worth. I told the crew to get
i behind the cotton bales, a, he would soon
! fire, but he held on until we were directly
! ahead and then he let 60
! A HUNDRED FOUNDER.
The shell looked like barrel in the air,
/ and hit the water about thirty feet from us,
and exploded beneath the surface, throwing
| the spray over our decks. He fired again,
! bnt was wide the mark. Then he let 90 q
! lOO-pound solid shot, which went over us
and struck mile beyond. The next was
/ lower. striking the water not far from us, and
ricochetted over US. He was now in our
wake and came on for a chase, training his
' bow gun on us. AS we were stern to him we
! presented but small mark. He fired shot
n minute, and they came all around u.s. We
had some ladies and childen on board,
! so 7 took them down in the hold in as safe a
place as possible, and made them comforta-
| BILE. They showed less trepidation than the
men during the whole chase. We soon saw
that he was doing little better than we
were, and 1 commenced to throw cotton
overheard to tighten the ship. This i'm
proved our speed, and we gained on him.
We had got overheard three hundred and
tbirty-seven bales when a shot came and
nocked off the oil cup Of the walking
beam.
THIS FRIGHTENED THE CREW
and engineers and they came to me in a
body to give up the ship, saying it was now
no use to try and get away. l told them I
had resolved not to give up the ship until my
wheels stopped; that if was taken it
would be while I was going. I ordered
them to duty and they went to work.
The loss of the cotton increased our speed
and we began to leave him. He had fired
at us two hundred and fourteen times, ac-
cordiDg to tally kept by an old gentleman
who was on board, a passenger. The chase
was most exciting one, and as we began to
leave him my men would wave their hats
and cheer at every shot. At four p. m. we
got out of reach of his guns and he left.
AS he was going off we dipped our colors to