The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1891-04-18
In THE OLD NAVAL TUBS.
DEAD NEGROES USED FOR TOR
PEDO FLOATS.
Interesting "Reminiscences OF the Life OF
. Hlockader--fiow british sioop
was Relieved of Its Cargo
OF Drinkabies.

with sharks. says Cincinnatian who
served for four years as engineer aboard
the blockading squadron In the late
war. They seemed 10 be possessed
Of high degree OF intelligence. and
lay about ships like sentinels watching
Tor something 10 fall overheard.
Things did fall overheard. too" he
continued. ''and not the least juicy
morsels snapped up by the grim watch
dogs OF the sen. were negroes. These
negroes were refugees. and IL by chance
one fell overheard. he seemed to give
up all hope Immediately and down he
went without even SO much as "a cry.
lThe sharks got colorcd men invariably
why, remember when aboard the
New Hampshire receiving ship. where
] was stationed awhile In charge of the
distilling apparatus. that for weeks
two sharks lay like sentinels at our
stern, one AT each side never moving
except To snap up some choice morsel
that fell overheard. As they lay about
six feet under the water they were visi-
BILE. but safe from our guns.
IL remember once we were detailed
10 keep the confederates from placing
torpedocs In the st. Johns river. The
ship was surrounded with torpedo
netting 10 prevent the enemy slipping
up at night and screwing bomb into
us unawares. One placid evening the
ships surgeon. thinking the nets n
sufficient protection against sharks,
went down 90 take IA bath In the space
between the netting and ships. He
splashed about for awhile and then
with one shrek he disappeared for
ever. A queer thing about his death
was that he had received u letter that
very day from him wife in New York
saying that she had dreamed he was in
imminent peril OF his life and beseech-
ing him 70 be careful what he did.
The sharks here were tricky They
had habit of following boat and
suddenly catching hold OF one OF the
oars. trying by this means 10 upset IL.
| believe they thoroughly understood
what the result OF an upset would be,
but we always fooled them.
Sharks We're not the worst thing
we had TO contend with ON that river
though. II was our practice 10 pick
up every dead body that could be- seen.
as we often by that means secured
letters containing valuable Information.
The confederates got onto this fact and
secured the dead bodies Of negroes and
attaching torpedoes TO them. allowed
them TO drift down toward us in the
hope that we would get blown up In
catching the bodies. But we dis
covered this ruse before any damage
was done. They were not sparing OF
powder In making these Internal
machines. One day while hunting on
the river | found four torpedoes and
we got 800 pounds OF powder from
them.
IL was put down AS deserter once,
but IL was no disgrace, as twas IA com
mon occurrence, and the entry was
I. erely formal. II happened In this
way In my ease; We were lying at
Hilton Head or Port Royal. and ] was
given leave of absence for twenty-four
hours To visit plantation. This plan
tation lay up the creek that was very
deep and very narrow. On our return
trip we found the tide In and the stream
away over its banks. The water ex-
tended long distance on both sides as
the creek was bordered by low plains.
We got out OF the center OF the stream.
and the tide suddenly rushed out, leav-
ing ms high and dry on shore and
there we sat until the next tide ioated
us of. We suffered for our careless
ness for the gallinippers got in their
work in great shape These gallinip-
pers, without exaggeration, were an
inch In length with bills half inch
long. They could puncture ordinary
clothing with ease. Sand heas We're
also sourse OF terrible torture To rs.
You see we lay surrounded by swamps.
and when the tide went out our deck
was brought down below the level OF
the swamp and legions Of gallinippers
and sand ileas boarded Ms. Many "a
time have strapped myself TO cross
trees of the masts, whore the wind
blew these pests away, thus letting me
have "A good sleep.
but as 20 the manaer OF our block
AIDE. Take that OF Charleston harbor.
for instance. There were here Old
lronsides the Wissahickon (our ship
and about ten others. The vessels
were posted about mile apart and at
night each patrolled up and down ON
its beat | remember one boat that
we ran down and sunk. II was about
2 o'clock In the morning and We could
just see a dark object which we knew
Il a.. L.. hon
bows and gave her shot, after which
she ran out TO sea. but soon came back.
This time we ran alongside and gave
her broadside after broadside until she
sank She went down In shallow water
and her deck was left above the sur
/ face. so that a crew was sent aboard 90