Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-10

ing with them they narrowly escaped cap ture by British frigate near Stonington, but safely arrived in New Haven harbor they made the shores echo with their broadsides
 Working while with his uncle Stevens at shoemaking in the old red house, he then shipped in the Rising Sun, William Punchard master bound for the West Indies. They were captured by the Regulator, British sloop of war, who carried them into Tortola.
 He assisted them to discharge the cargo and
 worked awhile with them, when, there was
 no prison on the island, they gave him his
 full liberty, when he got a passage to St.
 Croix, a Danish island, and thence to New
 Haven on board the ship Patty, Major Lines
 commander. At this time the American flag
 was not allowed to be hoisted in Danish port.
 But, sayssPainter, "After Capt. Lines had
 completed his business got under weigh
 for home. The captain was high
 liberty man, also was John Conner,
 planter who lived atthe northwest end of the
 harbor, and feeling pretty rich and merry,
 Lines as soon as he got opposite hoisted the American stars and stripes and fired salute to honor his friend Conner. A Danish higate lying near upon this at once manned barge and sent it in pursuit to punish Lines for his temerity As she neared them Lines hailed them and ordered them to keep of. On their re- fusal Lines fired several swivels into her. when she tackled and then went back. l expected if there should be breeze. that the frigate would be out after us and if taken we should probably be hung at the yardarm for firing on his Danish majesty's boat. Fortunately there was light breeze, which enabled us to escape. This, however, was gr2at damage to Captain Lines, who never dared to visit that port again. Fifty years ago two
 daughters of this Captain Lines lived in | large white house on the site of the Sheffield block one of whom, Miss Mary, married the
 Hon. David Daggett.
 On his return to New Haven MT. Painter Shi friends of Captain Punchard had provided for him. Painter relates an interesting per sonal incident which occurred on board Of this vessel. He says:
 E'We had two small carriage guns and about a dozen muskets on board when we were loading away at the New Haven wharf.
 Lying near us on the opposite side of the wharf were two brigs, the 'Hetty,' Captain
 David Phipps, and the 'Eunice,' Captain
 Ebenezer Peck, both well armed, and sev-
 eral other vessels, all calculating to Keep
 company down the Sound at least
 One afternoon, the captain being on shore, it
 came into my head, I know not why, as l had
 no fear of the enemy, to get up the muskets,
 rub the rust off the locks, put in new Hints,
 load them and lay them side by side on the
 bundles of hay on the quarter deck. Then
 covered them up with the tarpaulin and
 when went below set watch to look out
 for the captain should he come of
 shore On going below I turned in and
 tried to get asleep, but was unable to only doze little, when about midnight l was
 startled by one of the raw hands singing out
 in an uncouth manner, 'Aho! the boat!
 Ahor I at first thought he was doing this
 to amuse himself or to learn how to hail. But
 as he continued his bawling l got tired at his
 noise and went on deck thinking there might
 be some boat coming off to the vessel and
 that they ought at least to answer, it being
 war time.
 CT +barafo,a s,,roao oD decLrand looked
 towards the wharf and saw what appeared to
 me a small boat with her head towards us
 lying perfectly still. Instantly hailed again,
 but no answer. Upon which lifted the tar
 paulin, seized musket and fired at them,
 threw that down, seized another and fired
 again and so kept on firing, which I could do
 so very fast. I soon began to get an answer,
 they crying out iMploringly, Don't fire,
 don't fire! We are friends I replied, If
 you are friends you had better be off, for we
 want no friends here at this time of night.
 They immediately sprang to their oars and laid
 their course down the harbor I then discovered
 she large whale boat full of men. By
 this time the people on board the Hetty,
 aroused from their sleep by our noise, rushed
 upon deck and discovered a second whale
 boat full of men near them making it's way
 down the harbor, when they rigged one of
 their bow guns and fired after them. This
 occurrence was not thought much of at the time. Some time after the war was over I was on voyage to the West Indies and among my men was one Dyer Cook, Now Haven man, who had been with the refugees at Lloyd's Neck through most of the revolu- tionary He gave to me his adventures through the war, among the rest related this very cruise of his in the whale boats and their reception almost exactly as I have stated it. It seems they had been secreted in New Haven several days waiting for the vessels to complete their cargoes and that they were offered large share of the prize money in case of success. Had it not been for the cow ardice of the captain in hssitating at the hail of the raw hand they could easily have board ed us and then stepped across the pier and taken the Hetty, for they were all below, cut the vessels and with fair wind and tide
 sailed directly for Lloyd's Neck; so that it seems very certain that only escaped by
 my cleaning the muskets and putting them
 just where 1 did and then being unable to get
 asleep when went below"
 The vessel after this escape safely made her voyage to St. Kitts and on her return was captured by the British frigate Albion. The captain appeared to have been fine hearted man. Painter had about $40 worth of dry goods and notions in his chest, private properly, which he told him to keep and be careful not to let the sailors steal it from him. On their arrival in New York they were placed on board the Old Jersey prison ship. As they neared the vessel Painter had diff culty in restraining himself and swimming ashore, although it Christmas time, the water was cold and the attempt almost certain death. He describes the treatment of the prisoners as humane as could be expected. He says F'They gave us good provisions, only prisoners allowance was rather scant. They cleaned the ship often and appeared to try to accommodate what they could with safety But it is impossible where such number of men have to be confined and shut up over night to keep them clean and heal thy" After relating comical incident of fist fight he had with an 1rishman, a fellow prisoner, in which Painter came off first best, he says that Elias Shipman, who built the New Haven club house, came aboard and got him and three others paroled. Painter on his release made his way to Lloyd's Neck, | finding among the refugees there many old neighbors and friends, who treated him with great hospitality. He thence crossed to the | main, made his way home and soon after the war was over.
 Captain Painter then followed the sea for many years as master and owner of vessels, meeting with variety of incidents. Among | the vessels in which he sailed was the sloop l Nancy, New Haven vessel which had the proud distinction of being the very first ! American vessel which sailed around the world. He thus alludes to the circumstance: q then continued in the West India trade
 until 1791, when the sloop Nancy, which had | been my home for so long a time, WIS raised upon and rgged into a brig
 by Elijah Austin and sent on sealing voy-
 age around Cape Horn, Daniel Green master. He, after finishing taking seal, proceeded on to | China and the East Indies and back by the
 way of Cape of Good Hope, going entirely around the world. This think to be the first | voyage of the kind ever made from this
 country" This Daniel Green lived in the
 old cottage mansion on Water street, on the square west of Sargent's factory. He was the commander of the Neptune in that fa- nous sealing voyage, the journal of which by Ebenezar Townsend, supercargo, was read | by MT. Trowbridge last year before the His | torical society. It netted $260.000 to the
 owners and occupied the years 1796 to '99. l When Captain Painter gave up going to
 sea he went into business with Noah Whea- don, Reuben Rice, Titus Street, Samuel l Hughes and Philemon Harrison, under the
 name of Painter, Wheaton & Go. Their
 store on Long Wharf under this name was | burned in the great fire of 1921 and that un- der the name of Reuben Rice & Co. was on | the site of Streets building. Later he was interested in dry goods
 store on Chapel street in company
 with Sidney Huggins and George Raymond.
 He was also interested in mercantile and