The Portland daily press., 1888-12-11
OUR TROUBLES WITH HAyTI OUTDoNE.
MaryIand's Fierce Little War with
the Oyster Pirates.
Chesapeake Bay the Scene OF a
Naval Conflict.
Plenty of cunpowder Burned But
Nobody Hurt.

| BALTIMORE, Dec. 10.-Another battle has
been fought by the police and the oyster
| pirates, and as usual, the police were routed.
| The Choptank river oyster police sloco Eliza
Hayward, Capt Thomas F. Bridges, CON-
mander, was defeated several days ago in a
battle with dredgers off Cooks Point, in the
Choptank river, and beat q retreat to Ok
ford, where she now lies, with forty-one
rife-ball holes through mainsall and lib, a
large number in the hull and deck-work, and
her rigging damaged. Capt Bridges thus
tells the story of the fight:
| Il left the Third Haven river in the
morning for Harris Greek. where made an
arrest. Coming out, we saw a fleet Of four
teen bay dredgers at work on Cooks Point,
which, being in the Choptank, is forbidden
| ground to them. !. Several times before we
had run dredgers off these grounds, one
time driving fleet Of 81 out into the bay. /
directed the course of the Hayward toward
the dredgers, expecting to drive them off,
and hoping to capture one of them, If pos
sible. When about one mile off, one of
them large pungy of forty or fifty tons,
opened fire on us, but the balls fell short
She advanced toward US, firing all the time,
not firing. We kept on our course, but with
holding our fire, as we did not have much
ammunition and did not want to waste any
OF 1T. We had drifted off somewhat to the
leeward, and seeing that the plan of battle
of the dredgers was to wind us, then cross
fire, surround and sink us, put the Hay
ward about and got windward and
kept there, outmaneuvring them in this
respect. This enabled me to save my
vessel We began firing when within about
&c ban als
each other until they were not more than
200 yards apart. We had only three guns
that would IRE, and two of these worked SO
badly that when fired the empty shells had
10 be showed out OF the chambers with a
ramrod. This made too slow work for SO
hot fight. The enemy's fire was terrific
and lncessant, the gun used being repeat
ing rife, OF which he had at least two al
ways loaded In the whole battle we never
saw man on the attacking vessel. They
were all under cover. The wheel and the
sheets were operated by rigs run into the
cabin. and the repeating rifles seemed to be
hred from port holes made through the trunk
OF the cabin. l kept our men under cover as
much as possible. Mate Bridges and myself
worked one mainsheet. In doing this we
were exposed, and a rifle ball passed through
Mr. Bridgess whiskers. None of our men
showed any fear. though they had never
been under fire before, and the balls were
whistling apparently within few inches of
their heads. think our assailant's first OBJ
Ject was to cut down our rigging and render
us helpless. Had our jibStay not been wire
he would have succeeded, as we could con-
stantly hear the balls singing against the
metal stay. The Hayward worked well, but
there were fourteen against one, every one
OF them twice the tonnage of the Hayward
and some larger than that, and they could
eventually have taken or sunk the Hayward.
seeing that our ammunition was getting low
and that we had made no impression upon
the enemy, my mate and had consulta-
tion ana determined that having made the
best fight We could, our duty to the State
now was to save the boat and that the only
way to do this was to retreat. SO we re-
luctantly turned the Hayward toward the
Ialpot side OF the river. The dredger pur-
sued us and kept up his fire, but seeing that
he was not gazing on us, he turned back"
Commander Plowman, of the State oyster
with government cannon to the Chester
river. where last night the dredging pirates,
emboldened by their recent success, turned
their guns up0E Baltimore steamboat. This
was the first attempt at this sort of lawless-
ness. Heretofore the dredgers have confined
their acts of violence to the "tongers" who
own the oyster beds and the police boats
tnat sought to prevent their piracy. Tie
steamer Corsica, Captain Taylor, of the
C,nester River Line, left Chesterville about
O'Clock last night for Baltimore, with forty
passengers. When the steamer was about
turning into the Chesapeake Bay from the
river, the passengers, who were mostly in
the upper-deck saloon, were startled by
demoniac yells followed by pistol shots.
The shots came from feet of eight Doats,
which were chained together in line Of battle
There was not wind enough for dredg'- s
but had there been the vessels could LA, O.
gone ahead without molestation, as no State
boat was in sight. A number Of rife-balls
were found in the steamers side. Captain
Taylor could assign no reason for his being
nred upon, except that the dredgers did II, as
he expressed it, out of "pure devilment." 1t
is hardly possible that the pirates could have
mistaken the Corsica for one Of the State
steamers, as she sits high out of the water,
and the saloon being on the upper deck, the
lights from the windows of both decks
would show that she was passenger
steamer. G. G. Roberts, a passenger, narrow
~ escaped being shot, a ball whistling past
his head. He stated that there were about
175 oyster boats in the river. 1t Is probable
that they had been dredging on the forbidden
grounds until the wind fell so that they
could not work. 1t is also thought that the
boats, which were lying about In fleets of
from eight to ten, were keeping together to
make it lively for the navy