Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-17
Ia YANKEE TAR'S NERVE.
SAW HIS CHANCE AND IS NOW
A CAPTAIN.
with Only Two Men He Brings In nm
Abandoned schooner-His skippef
Had Taken Six Sick Men
on the Little Boat.


! Neva, abandoned at sea by her Blue
nose skipper, appeared off Sandy
Hook the other morning, commanded
by clever Connecticut navigator
and manned by two hardy seamen,
says the New York Sun. The trio are
richer by several thousand dollars.
than they were when they left Rock
port, Me-, on the Yankee bark Ches-
tina Redman, bound for Baltimore. 1t
was First Mate James Lawrie OF the
Redman, who brought the two-masted
Nova Scotian safely through the win
ter seas into haven, and it happened
this way:
The Redman, with cargo of gran
tie, was making fine weather Of it
through a snow-laden gale, about
forty miles off Nantucket, when her
lookout reported a schooner to the
south flying the British ensign, union
down. The bark was headed for the
schooner, and hove to under her lee.
Captain Mclean invited the Blue
nose skipper and his crew aboard the
bark. They made a wild effort to
launch their only beat and failed. 1t
was crushed against the schooner
as it swung from the davits. Then
Captain Mclean decided to risk
launching boat from his own vessel.
Mate Lawrie and Seamen Benson and
Pelican volunteered. They put off
safely and got under the lee of the
schooner. Captain Swain and his six
men jumped aboard the boat and were
rowed through the threatening seas
to the bark.
Mate Lawrie is an observing per-
son, and he noted that the little
schooner-she is only ninety-fve feet
long-seemed to be in almost perfect
condition. Her sails were whole, her
rigging taut and her spars sound. So
when he got back to the bark he sug-
gested that his skipper might go on
to Baltimore without him, and that
he would, with two men, get the
abandoned craft into shape and take
her into New York. The skipper was
agreeable, and back to the schooner
the mate and the two seamen rowed.
They hauled the boat aboard, think
ing it might come in handy, and went
right away to find out what the
trouble was with the schooner.
Captain Swain didn't like the idea
of having his boat sailed into port
after he had abandoned her, and to
dissuade Mate Lawrie from his design
he said that there was no water and
no provisions on the schooner. Mate
Lawrie found provisions for six
months and two casks OF water; but
he had brought aboard a ham, some
water and two kegs of biscuit for fear
Captain Swain was truthful. The
mate noticed plenty of evidences that
the crew that abandoned the Neva
had been seasick.
AS the bark sailed away the mate
and his crew of two began work at
the pumps of the schooner. They
wouldn't work, for the very sufficient
reason that they were clogged with
chips of logwood. with which the
schooner was laden. They were
cleared and repaired, and before
night there was so little water in the
hold that pumping became a mere
waste of energy. Before morning the
mate and his men had the schooner
on her course under all lower sail.
A gale out of the northeast com
PEELED the mate to heave to under
head sail, as he feared to risk pro-
ceeding with only two men to help
him. The little schooner bucked the
waves twenty-four hours. The gale
had dwindled, then, to a stiff wind,
and the schooner was bounding down
the Long Island coast in yacht-like
style. At 10 o'clock on Wednesday
night she had Fire island abeam. Be-
fore dawn next day she took a pilot
aboard, and at z a. m. she was just
outside Sandy Hook, waiting for a
tug to bring her to anchor.
The big Mutual came along looking
for a job, and Mate Lawrie asked
Captain Roach, the Mutual's pilot,
how much it was worth. Captain
Roach said 500" Mate Lawrie as
sumed the air of real skipper, and
said: I'D rather sail her in than pay
that" Thereupon Captain Roach
said he would do the work for $50.
Inasmuch as the schooner and her
cargo are worth about. $14, ZOO. and
NO AtAopO VI bnO
will be several thousand dollars, his
conduct toward Captain Roach, SO
the captain said later, was not alto
gether magnanimous.
When the customs inspector
boarded the Neva at quarantine, he
was surprised to find that she had on
ly two men, and that the name on
her manifest was not that of her act
ing skipper. The inspector straight
ened things by scratching over the
name of Swain-master, and substitute
ing that of Lawrie, and that is how
the mate became a captain.
The Neva is from Black River,
Jamaica. She is only one year and
a half old, and is rated by the Amer
lean Lloyd's as a Hrst-class vessel,
good for ten years service.
The Landlord Was shrewd.