Milford chronicle., 1888-08-31
CAPT. B0DEN.

Living on O shelf above the roll top desk
In the office of a South street merchant,
with a lot of letter and bill files, etc, on
each side Of it, is Il bound volume of The
London Mercantile Marine Magazine. A
slip of red ribbon serves as book mark
in it. It is not customary for merchants
TO keep old magazines among their pa
pers, and a friend of the merchant asked
him Yesterday if there was any special
reason for doing so.
eyes. said the merchant, cit contains
q reference to my first voyage to sea. Be
Bides, / like to show it to Capt Boden
when he comes in to see me. Capt. Boden
is a prosperous Long Island farmer now,
living near Northport, but twenty years
ago he was the master of the New Haven
schooner Pandora. l was lad of 10 then,
and made my first sea voyage in the Pan
dora. So the captain and are old friends. "
By this time the merchant had got rid
Of the dust on the outside of the maga-
zine, and had opened it at the book mark.
On one page in black faced type, was the
heading Rewards and Testimonials, ="
beneath which was the statement that
her British majestry and the board OF
trade had awarded various articles as
prizes to sailor men for humanity and
bravery, as stated in the paragraphs
following. One Of these paragraphs had
black pencil mark around it. 1t was as
follows:
s.To Capt. Isaac Boden, of the schooner
Pandora of New Haven, Z. S., gold
chronometer in acknowledgment of his
humanity to the master and crew Of the
brig Fannie Douglas, Of Nassau, N. P,
whom he rescued from their vessel on
June e."
THE entire crew of the Pandora, con-
tinued the merchant, "were Northport
citizens, neighbors aud friends, you may
say, at home and at sea as well. The
mate, Ezekiel Norton, was the captain S
brother-in-law; both men owned shares IN
the schooner, and both were good seamen,
The second mate, Daniel Clement, who
was about fifteen years older than either,
was acknowledged to be the best sailor
man mailing from Northport. That he was
a second mate instead of captain was
due solely to his taste for liquor.
with such u crew as this it is not sur
prising that discipline was somewhat lax.
Man O. war discipline never yet got over
the rail Of a cOasting schooner so far as
know, but / rather think that we had
more slack rope to ours than is generally
D
spite of this, however, the men had o
/ sailor pride in the craft, and it was not
/ too much to say that the Pandora was
handled and cared for as well as any vessel
in the trade.
"We were on the return trip from New
| Orleans for Fall River with cotton, and
/ had Just brought Hatteras abeam when
/ there came piping gale out Of the north
west that liked to have ended us then and
there. The wind came in squall, and
we lost the maintopmast while taking in
the flying iib and foretopsail. Then We
| hauled down the lib and lowered the fore
sail on deck in a hurry, after which, find
ing the wind increasing constantly, We
close reefed the foresail and furled th'
rest of tho canvas, and so lay to and LEI
her drift OF course we got the wreclSagt
cleared away as soon as we had spuggeC
her.
"Well, tho Pandora was a good Sc;
boat, and after drifting for three day.
and losing nearly 100 miles the storm
blew itself out and settled into westerl,
wind that promised to make up partly f0
| what we had lost We were all anima
tion in getting the canvas on her again t.
| take advantage of the breeze, the more 81
as she had had much slower passage up t.
the time tho storm came on than usual
on account of light winds. AS soon as W
got the sails set Mr.. Clement and one o
the men began blocking out a new top
mast from a spruce log that we had car
ried for such an emergency. Clement wa
a good ships carpenter, and had saved tn
Pandora great many dollars for mino
repairs.
while at work at this, and somewher
about 10 o'clock in the morning, the ma
at the wheel saw a wreck long way o.
to leeward. 1t was plainly a brig, fol
although both topmasts and tho bowspri
were gone, the lower masts remained
When tho wreck was reported Capt. Bode
came on deck and took long look at he
through the glass.
"'She's British, he said, pretty soon,
90 See anybody on herY asked Nj
Norton.
/" Not soul. Take look at he
yourself
- Pm mighty glad of that, said Nj
Norton, taking the glasses. Wed los
half day of this wind if we had to ru
down there.
"With that Mr.. Clement got rid of
large chew Of tobacco, and said wit
emphasis;
dIf we had to run down to herl Ain
We going to run down anyhow M
Clement had been twice picked off (
floating wrecks like the one we were lool
ing at, and each time it was after seem
a number of vessels pass very close
windward without paying any attentie
TO tho wreck. He was sensitive on Il
subject, naturally. No oSe made any r
ply to his question. After looking Il
wreck over Mr.. Norton said;
"sBritish she is for sure. The squa
must have caught her all standing
blowed the canvas clean out of her.
can't see enough tapping about her for
dishrag except that piece Of the spank
al tie end Of tho gaff. There's noboC
aboard of her, FOR there isn't any sort
a signal to be seen fore nor aft
"Mr. Clement snorted rather than sal
Give me the glassgs.'
Zone glance was enough for him.
"'Theres nothing like shares in t
vessel to blind tho eyes of a skippeIi
said. Piece of the spanker, ehf !
the end Of the gaff, eli! Can't S
no signals, ehi Don't know ]
difference between tarpaulins and 4
end of a gaf for signals aud
piece Of spanker, ell? Don't want
See any signals, do yeg Some folks al
mean enough to leave their own mothei
on a wreck rather than lose a capful I
wind
1.-THE more Mr.. Clement said the mo-
excited he got, and from what have T
peated he went on to worse until the ca
tain got so rolled over the taunts of Il
man that he hauled off and knocked hi
down. But he didn't stay down; he w
on his feet again in an instant and gra
: bed for a pump brake in a rack at q
mainmast. A pump brake is nigh
handy weapon It is usually made Of a
o,d ie obo,it thirty inches lonr and ty