The Portland daily press., 1896-04-16
OLD TIME SEA STORIES.
Suggested by a Queer Museum of Relics in
the Charleston Navy Yard.

boston IS famous IOr lbS Wealtn OF MS
torical associations, and its old Land
marks and buildings make it one of the
most interesting cities in the country to
visit. In the many museums in this city,
too, may be found hundreds Of articles of
the greatest historic interest, about which
most of the citizens of Boston know but
little. Some of the most interesting of
these are to be found in the Naval Lyce-
uIn at the CharlestownFN Yard. This
was originally intended as station from
which letters and packages could be sent
out to officers, and In the course of time
the officers equipped it with a library,
and got to using it as sort Of club.
Thsy also contributed to 1T any rare or
curious articles which they happened to
pick up in the course of their cruises,
and with the things which were sent in
from other sources most interesting
museum was formed. Gradually, how
ever, this custom has fallen into dsuse,
and for number of years there have
been no contributions to the museum.
About the most interesting thing in it is
the figurehead of the General Armstrong,
a ship about which there is comparative
ly little mention in history, and yet
which played most important part in
the battle of New Orleans, one of the
principal fights of the war OF 1912.
The General Armstrong was noted
American priyateer. and at the time OF
the occurrence which had such an in
| f1uenoe on this fight was commanded by
Capt. Samuel G. Reed On the goth o
September, 1914, she was lying in the
harbor of Fayal, when the British ves-
sells were sighted bearing down for the
harbor. They turned out to be the "a
Plantagenet, the Rota, SO, and the sloop
Carnation, IS guns. Although Portugal
was neutral power, Capt Reed knew
that she was not of sufficient strength to
enforce neutralttykin her harbor against
these ships, and, anticipating trouble, he
got up his anchor and hauled the Arm
strong as close to the shore as possible,
anohoring her with springs. SO as to
bring her broadside to the British ships.
His fears proved well grounded, for that
night they attacked him in boats. The
boats were discovered some time. before
they reached the ship, and a broadside Of
grap3 was poured Into them, repelli ng
them with fearful slaughter. More boats
were launched, however, and a second
attempt was made. This time, in spite
of the grape, the boarders succeeded in
but were finally driven from her. The
Carnation was then brought up, and q
| long-range battle between the two vessels
was begun, but Reed mounted "Long
Tom," his 24-pound gun, on the main
deck, and used it to such good effect that
the Carnation was crippled and driven
off. After this third attempt, Reed real
1 at tha Britt ioh 4
better of him in the long run, and, scut-
thing his vessel, he escaped to the shore
and made his way inland. In the fight
the Americans lost two killed and seven
wounded, while the British loss was
more than 300 officers and men killed
and wounded. The damage to tho Car
nation was SO great that the ships by
reason Of the necessary repairs aud the
sborthandedness resulting from the grsat
| loss of men, were detained for ten days.
They were on their way to New Orleans,
and this delay OF ten days gave jackson
time to gather his troops and strengthen
his position, SO that the gallant fight
won the battle. When the ship finally
broke up, the fgurehead came ashore,
and it was sent by the Council of Fayal
to Washington, and later presented to the
| lyceum.
| Another interesting reliu in the same
museum is an umbrella which was used
| by the Con stitution in making her es-
cape from the English feet in July, 1919.
This is all that is told by the card at
tached to it, ana the umbrella is COM
plete puzzle to nearly every one who
visits the museum. In the first place it
is utterly unlike any umbrella that any
one ever saw before, and, in the second,
not one person in d hundred is able to
| figure out how the Constitution made
use Of it in making her escape from the
British vessels. 1t is exactly like an
umbrella frame in general shape, but the
stick is about ten feet long with heavy
| iron ring at each end, and Is about three
inches in diameter. The frame slipes up
and down on it, just like the frame of an
ordinary umbrella, and Is made of stout
iron BARS Some people think that it may
! have boon set up on the deck to give the
officers a little shade on q hot day, but
they cannot see how this helped in the
escape. he purpose for which it was
| intended and used was rs a sea anchor,
and it's story is as follows:
On the 18th of July, 1919, the Consti-
tuition. then cruising under the command
OF that famous old fighter Isaac Hull,
was surrounded by Brooke's squadron of
five vessels. Before they could close in
on him, however, it fell calm, and Capt
Hull at once made use of the umbrella.
Of which there were two aboard. A cable
|
would be the handle in one of the ordi-
nary kind, and the umbrella was folded
up and taken out by boat 60 cables
length ahead Of the vessel. 1t was then
thrown overheard, and soon as the Grew
began to haul in on the windlass it of
course spread out, giving drag by
which the vessel could be warped ahead
While the vessel was warping up to this
one, the other one was taken cut, and
before the British had discovered what
Hull was doing he had gotten outside of
the circle with which they had surround
ed him. They Immediately began to
pursue the same tactics. but he rnn two
24-pound guns out of his cabin windows
and kept them from getting anywhere
near him, as, whenever one Of the boats
carrying out drag came up astern of
him, he would fire with one of the "Long
Toms" and in this way kept the ships
from closing in. This was Kept up for
two days, and on the evening of the seq
ond day came up squall. Hull carried
on sail through it, gaining, such an ad-
vantage over the Englishmen that he was
able to elude them in the night and was
out of sight the next morning. Thus.
but for the unoouth looking umbrella at
the Navy Yard, the Constitution would
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