Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-08-23
CAPT. BODEN.

| Win lot or letter and BILL hleS, ETC., on
each side of it, is bound volume IF The
London Mercantile Marine Magazine. A
slip of red ribbon serves as book mark
in it. 1t is not customary for merchants
to keep old magazines among their pa
pors, and friend of the merchant asked
hin yesterday if there was any special
reason for doing so.
"Yes, said the merchant, cit contains
a reference to my first voyage to sea. Be-
sides, like to show it to Capt Boden
when he comes in to see me. Capt. Boden
is prosperous Long Island farmer now,
living near Northport, but twenty years
ago he was the master of the New Haven
schooner Pandora was lad of 16 then,
and made my first sea voyage in the Pan
dora. So the captain and l 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 lsack 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
q black pencil mark around it. 1t was as
follows:
ITO Capt. Isaac Boden, of the schooner
| Pandora of New Haven, U. s., a 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 81"
The entire crew of the Pandora" con-
| tinued the merchant, "were Northport
citizens, neighbors and friends, you may
say, at home and at sea as well. The
mate, Ezekiel Norton, was the captains
brother 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 hailing from Northport. That he was
a second mate instead of a captain was
due solely to his taste for liquor.
with such crew as this it is not sur
prising that discipline was somewhat lax.
Man O war discipline never yet got over
the rail of coasting schooner so far as l
know, but l rather think that we had
more slack rope to ours than is generally
found even in the coasting trade. In
spite of this, however, the men had a
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.
1--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
%bo Qx-;,cr iih opI foro%opcei1 TboD
hauled down the jib and lowered the fore
sail on deck in hurry, after which, find
ing the wind increasing constantly, we
close reefed the foresail and furled the
rest of the canvas, and so lay to and let
her drift. Of course we got the wreckage
cleared away as soon as we had snugged
her.
"Well, the Pandora was a good sea
boat, and after drifting for three days
and losing nearly 100 miles the storm
blew itself out and settled into westerly
wind that promised to make up partly for
what we had lost. We were all anima-
tion in getting the canvas on her again to
take advantage of the breeze, the more so
as she had had a much slower passage up to
the time the storm came on than usual,
on account of light winds. AS soon as we
got the sails set Mr.. Clement and one Of
the men began blocking out new top
mast from spruce log that we had car
ried for such an emergency. Clement was
a good ships carpenter, and had saved the
Pandora a great many dollars for minor
repairs.
"While at work at this, and somewhere
about 10 o'clock in the morning, the man
at the wheel saw q wreck long way off
to leeward. It was plainly brig, for,
although both topmasts and the bowsprit
were gone, the lower masts remained.
When the wreck was reported Capt. Boden
came on deck and took long look at her
through the glass.
"'She's British, he said, pretty soon.
"'See anybody on herr asked Mr..
"'Not soul. Take look at her
yourself
"'I'm mighty glad Of that said Mr..
Norton, taking the glasses. Wed lose
half day of this wind if we had to run
down there
with that Mr.. Clement got rid Of q
large chew of tobacco, and said with
emphasis:
s'.If we had to run down to her! Amt
ye going to run down anyhow Mr..
Clement had been twice picked off of
floating wrecks like the one we were look
ing at, and each time it was after seeiDg
o number of vessels pass very close to
windward without paying any attention
to the wreck. He was sensitive on the
subject, naturally. No one made any re-
Div to his question. After looking the
wreck over Mr.. Norton said:
"'British she is for sure. The squal
must have caught her all standing. 1t
blowed the canvas clean out of her.
can't see enough tapping about her for
dishrag except that piece Of the spanker
at the end of the gaf. There's nobody
aboard of her, for there isn't any sort OF
q signal to be seen fore nor aft
''Mr. Clement snorted rather than said:
Give me the glasses
Zone glance was enough for him.
"'There's nothing like shares in the
vessel to blind the eyes of a skipper, he
said. Piece of the spanker, oh? AT
the end of the gaff, eh? Can't see
no s;gnals, ell? Don't know no
difference between tarpaulins and the
end of gaff for signals and
n,ece of a spanker, ehi Don't want to
sees any signals, do YET Some folks are
mean enough to leave their own mothers
m a wreck rather than lose capful OF
.sThe more Mr.. Clement said the more
exc;ted he got, and from what | have re-
neated he went on to worse until the cap
tain rot so rolled over the taunts OF the
man That he hauled OF and knocked MN
NJ 4. J;Jp,% cfQv down: he was