Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-02-27
A RACE FOR COTTON.
How the Crop in Charleston Was "Cor-
nered' in the Day of Sailing Vessels.

How the Crop in Charleston Was Cor
nered'' in the Day of Sailing Vessels.
Edward Knight Collins was great
naval architect as well as shipping mer-
chant. whose career was, on the whole,
more noteworthy than that Of any man en-
gagged anywhere in similar pursuits. ms
public spirited citizen, son OF Captain
Israel G. Collins, the owner and commander
of a ship that traded between the United
States and England, was born ON the 9Th
of August 1902 His mother, Mary Allan
a niece of Admiral Sir Edward Knight, Of
the British navy, dying ten days after the
birth of her only child, the infant was
reared by his aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Small,
Of Truro, Cape Cod, whose kindness and
affection Mr. Collins remembered with
gratitude to the day of his death In his
fifteenth year, after course of study at
Sandwich, Cape Cod, and Elizabethtown,
N. j., he entered as a clerk, at Al South
street, New York, the store OF Messrs.
McCrea g. Slidell, the latter gentleman a
brother of the Confederate minister, John
| Slidell, who was captured on board the
/ Trent by naval officers of the country he
had disowned.
Five years afterward Mr.. Collins was
making trips to the West Indies as super
cargo for John +. Delaplaine, sharing in
the profits of the ventures of his new EN-
ployer and experiencing several hair,
breadth escapes from pirates and two disas-
trous shipwrecks on the coasts of Cuba and
Florida, so that when in 1926 he became
the partner of his father in the firm OF
Israel G, Collins 81 Son, on the north cor
ner of South street and Burling slip, he
was fully equipped for a notable CONNER
IA ch hsa
foundation of his subsequent prosperity
The ship Canada, a regular Liverpool
trader, had arrived in New York, after
short passage, with the news of a great rise
in the price of cotton in England, and a
number of spectators forthwith combined
to buy all the cotton they could find.
Several merchants, also seized with a
similar purpose, determined to send an
agent to Charleston, and at l o'clock
on the day of the Canada's arrival pro
ceeded to the Office of l. G.. Collins & Son,
and asked the junior member of that firm
to act in that capacity. A few minutes
reflection was enough to enable him to
accept the appointment, and in reply to
their question, How soon can you start p
he said quietly: GAS soon as | can charter
a pilot boat and ship provisions and crew
about three hours. l will be ready &c
sail at o'clock this afternoon"
But the regular Charleston packet
leaves at that hour, and the speculators
will 90 out by her and get there before
: you"
5 Gentlemen" was the reply, II will g
[ in the way l have named or not at all. "
Enough said. AT precisely 4 o'clock, from
the pier at Burling slip, the packet hauleC
: in her hawsers, and the pilot boat, unde
r command of +. X. Collins, cast loose he
a moorings, the vessels proceeding down tn
East river together, much to the amuse
ment of the spectators on board tn
Q packet, who mercilessly chaffed the boy,
n as they called him, for his temerity in at
tempting to beat them. But Collins, bein
B, an accomplished navigator, and sailing i
a boat of so light draft that it coul
II keep close to shore and take full advantag
l. of tides, currents and land breezes, wa
n soon out of sight Of the merryandrew'
- and reached Charleston long enough in ac
vance of them to buy all the cotton in tina
city and ON the Cooper and Ashley river
ID to arrange his exchanges, make out his Il
p voices and set sail for New York in hi
a saucy little craft.
She was crossing the bar homewar
Is bound, with her whip at the main, whe
s. the packet and the Spectators hove
As sight, and as the two vessels passed eae
:, other within speaking distance, an ey
?, witness relates that the would be cotto
! buyers on board the bigger one laughe
D. this time the other side of their mouth
is That was certainly splendid start for
young business man of twentythree year
George w Sheldon in Harper's.