The National tribune., 1882-09-02
THE
CANOE WITH THE BLACK SAILS
BY EDWARD SPENCER.

"Inever captured but one prize that felt
ashamed Of" said my friend, Commander
Nisbet, e. S. n, as we dined together at the
-, "and I have helped to take good
many since the war begun" And the brave
Commander braver or more generous
hearted man never trod quarter deck-alter-
nately slipped and smelt ut the glass OF
fragrant IOSeye that was before him, in
dulging TWO delighted senses at once.
Tell us about it, Nisbet, said Colchester,
twisting himself round in his chair at once
TO listen the better and TO rest his crippled
leg: ave poor Rebs used to envy you salt
water Nanks to fTightful degree, as we
watched you from the hot furnace of case
mate What jolly cruises you must have
had, and what exciting chases, with mill
ion in cotton as the purse to run for, or a
cargo of tirst-chOp Bordeaux brandy"
All, bah!" reioiued Nisbet. THAT was
sport reserved for blOOded nags. None but
the pets Of the Department were allowed to
enter for those races. We poor fellows, with
out influence at home, or politicians TO take
content ourselves with very small slices of
the public pie. Out-of-the-way-statiO
condemned steamers that could not crawl
five knots an hour and had to make haTbor
if there were breeze enough to flutter
woman's bonnet strings-these were our
portion. The swampy creeks, stagnant Ia
goons. and barren sandbarS Of out-Of-the-way
points on the coasts of Georgia, Florida, and
Texas, where the fever ragged all summer and
fall, where mosquitoes riddled our sunburnt
4. skins, and where the only excitement was
the arrival of an occasional storeship, the
coming of of an occasional intelligent con
traband,' CT the very rare attempt of some
crazy 'pungy' schooner, with bale or two of
cotton or q few pounds of tobacco, TO run the
block '-sCch were the stations at which We
were condemned to spend our time 1t was
a terribly slow lie, s0ul-wearying, in fact
Once we had been stationed 80 long in the
mouth Of ST. Mary'S river that the crew
swore an Oyster-bed had grown fast to the
old steamers keel. Oar surgeons mate an
intelligent, active young fellow, took the
tedium of inaction so hardly that he went
crazy. jumped overheard and was drowned"
Nisbet paused 10 sip his wine. Colchester
laughed. The inaction gave him too much
pause for reflection" he said, "and his con-
science condemned him for prosecuting us so
relentlessly"
You wouldn't have thought so," reioined
Nisbet cOoily, If you had heard him swear
ing at you for getting him into such scrape
However, it was horrible old place, and a
horrible time we had of it-rusting and
grOweng sick and sour. Before we were re-
lieved there were two-thirds of our whole
party did not speak to one another. never
was so glad in my life as when, returning to
New York, / received orders to join the
Potomac fotilla as executive officer of the
Swell The steamer was an old tub of q
ferry-bOat, with mean armament and q
meaner appointment, but did not care for
that, since / was at least within sight of civ
ilizatiOn, and had the chance to pitch a shell
now and then at something OF other-excuse
me, Colchester, you put your heads in range
you can't blame us for wanting to smash
them"
ooh, know all about that" said Colches-
ter, " don't fash yourself, my boy. never
threw away shot if could help it. So
you were aboard the Swell Ell? 1 put a
Parrott shell through her pilot-house once
at Falmouth"
"You did?" said Nisbet; there's one of
your splinters, then" and he showed deep
scar on his scalp, under the hair. Il thought
the day OBJ Jubilo' had come when that
little love-tap sent me spinning cat-west,
and by the same token the wheel went spin
ming, too, for the pilot was not so lucky as
was, and had pretty near thing Of it. But,
about the prize: The Swell had several
Offices to perform. She was one of the guard
boats for Point Lookout prison camp, she
had to keep an eye to the contrabandists
who traded out of the mouth of the Patux-
ent, and at night she had to 20 few miles
up the Potomac, and act as tender and SUD-
port to the picket boats which lined the
river at several points. The Patuxent peo-
pie were very shrewd and hard to catch
We could not seize their boats, as they were
not supposed to be within an accessible dis
lance Of the enemy, and the consequence was
that nearly every man who owned a canoe
under the pretence of oystering, drove a
thriving trade by taking quinine gun-caps,
drugs, &c, over to Virginia and bringing
back passengers and tobacco Their canoes.
lugger-rigged, were very fast, and, as they
used blacl, sails, and had acquired very
noiseless habits, it was next TO impossible to
catch them. They used to leave the mouth
of the Patuxent just after dark, give Point
Lookout a pretty wide offing, land some
where on the Virginia shore under shelter of
the dark woods, ship their cargo, and be
back again and snugly home before day
break. One evening, just as we hove anchor
in Cornfeld harbor, about to go to our sta
lion up the river, we saw one of these boats
and determined to capture her to intimidate
the others. was in the pilot house. with