The Portland daily press., 1893-03-20
SOME ODD STORIES.


Three Stories of My How he
Blew Up Pirate Craft, Stood or Four
Robbers and Exter1ninated Band of
Hostile Indians.
Copyright, 1893. by American Press Associa-
toni
My grandfather on my fathers side was
dead before was born, but l have heard
enough about him to be enabled to enter
tain you with some very strange Incidents
in his career. From all accounts he was a
grandfather to be proud Of in certain direc-
tions. When he was boy OF IA, he was
bound as an apprentice to the owners Of the
brig Boxer, which was employed in trade
between Liverpool and various ports in
Brazil On the very first voyage, when
nearing the Brazilian coast, suspicious
vessel was sighted, and the brig crowded on
all sail to show clean pair OF heels. There
were pirate craft af1oat in those waters at
that date, and nearly all merchantmen car
RED strong crews and were fairly armed.
The owners Of the Boxer made the fact
that she was very fast sailer an excuse
for shipping only enough men to work her,
and refused to arm her, except with cam
non for firing signals Of distress. She had
many close shaves and would doubtless
have got away in this instance it all had
been WELL She was rapidly leaving the
other craft when the wind suddenly fell
and left her with hardly steerage way.
The pirate craft, for such she certainly
was, had sweeps to use in just such an
emergency, and though it was slow and la
borious work she finally crawled up to
within musket shot. For an hour previous
to this Captain Whitcomb Of the Boxer
had looked upon his capture as certain and
was in despair. There was nothing to
fight with had the crew been willing, and
the fear that they would have their throats
cut unnamed the whole lot. ! must, in
truth, make one exception. Ny grand
father was a stout and plucky lad for his
age, and instead of hiding away to pray
and lament, as did the others, he rum
mayed around for powder and shot for the
gun. BY great good luck he came across a
single solid shot to fit the bore of the cam
non, and he induced the cook, who was a
black man from Jamaica, to help him load
the piece and run it out of port. The
CAPTAIN came on deck while they were busy
and cried out: s sNassugA
Thomas, we ere. lost rnen There is NO
sign of breeze, and yonder craft will be
alongside in an hour They may spare you,
being only lad, but they will most GER
tainly murder all the rest Of us. If you are
spared, wish you to tell the owners and
my wife how it was. What are you doing
there?"
"Going to give him shot, STRIP sturdily
replied my grandfather.
But it will only provoke him to use us
the worse Go hide Yourself and pray to
God to forgive your sins"
With that the overanxious and dis
tracted captain turned away and entered
his cabin, but my grandfather did not obey
his command. On the contrary, although
the cook now ran below to hide himself
among the cargo, he heated the poker at
the galley fire, primed the cannon and per
sisted in his intention of having at least
one shot. The wind had now died quite
away, and the brig was swinging on the
ground swell, her head pointing north, east
and south by turns
The pirate craft came up bows on. OF
course. When within musket shot, she ran
up the black flag, and there was great cheer.
ing among hermen Sh$Was armed with six
long mines and had crew Of 10 men. The
defenseless state Of the brig had been OBJ
served from aloft, and the idea of the pirate
was to drop alongside and take quiet pos
session. As she came up my grandfather
was the only person in sight. He waited
until the pirate sheered off to make his last
move and then fred his gun. The craft
were then only pistol shot apart. The
gun was set for point blank firing, and il
was accident that guided the shot 1t
struck the pirate, penetrated his magazine,
and while the boy stood staring over the
bulwarks there was an explosion which
was heard for Is miles around, and pirates
and pirate craft went sailing sky high. Not
one single man escaped, while the brig re-
ceived considerable damage from the fall
ing debris.
You can imagine the joy Of the crew Of
the Boxer when they discovered what had
occurred. That one shot had saved val
liable ship and cargo aud probably their
lives as WELL 1t had also brought instant
destruction to craft which was the pest
of those waters and had successfully evaded
the cruisers on the lookout for her. Croft
and crew were Spanish, and every one OF
the men had murder and worse to answer
for. When the brig got back to England,
the press and public made great hero OF
my grandfather, and the owners of the
craft presented him with the sum of 81 900.
The public raised and presented him with
an equal sum, and thus he found himself
possessed of small fortune at that early
age. He gave up the sea and was for four
years at school, and from the age OF 10 to
25 I have no trace Of him.
His next adventure, as my records show.
occurred a few miles from the town Of Rich
mond, province Of Quebec, he having emf
grated from his native land. 1t seems that
he had hecon,e 1and1ovH ar a country tavern
and was looked upon as wealthy man. 1t
was section Of country infested by hard
characters. and my grandfather always had
his weather eye out for plots to get the bet
ter of him. He was then big. strong
man, with reputation for fearlessness, and
no one man had any business to attack
him. A plan was, however. formed which
included four men. who drove up to the inn