The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-13
HERO OF THE MAINE.
How Captain Sigsbee Once Won Fame
"a Hunter.


Hunter.
New York Press.
A New Yorker who has known Captain
SigSbee, of the blown-up battle ship Maine
for more than twenty years, said to the
writer yesterday:
Il first met Captain Sigsbee when he was
commander of the Blake then in the coast
survey service off the coast of Florida, and
/ was enjoying a vacation at Tampa. AT
irregular intervals the Blake would Jug in
for supplies or COAL remaining in port sew
eral days at a stretch. AT such times he
used to occupy room just across the cor
ridor from mine at the hotel, and we thus
had an opportunity to become Well ac-
quainted. He was then under middle age,
rather short, dark and with swapping black
eyes. His talk and manner We're decidedly
engaging, his love of fun was pronounced
and his fondness for shooting and fishing
became proverbial.
asked me to go shooting with him. agreed,
but a difficulty at once presented itself in
the fact that neither of us owned gun.
We got over that, however, by borrowing
one from the landlord of the hotel-an old
fashioned. double-barreled, muzzle-loading
shotgun-which, he said, we were entirely
welcome to use, though, he added, it might
be that we would find it in too bad repair
to be available. Sigsbee said he could util-
iZe anything in the shooting-iron line that
had barrels, but must confess that had
my doubts as to the outcome when exam
ined the piece. In some. way the little tubes,
placed on ' the old"fashioned shotguns. had
been broken off in this case, and for the
life of me l couldn't see how Sigsbee pro-
posed to get over the difficulty. 1t turned
out to be simple enough-for Sgsbee.
q can shoot with this all right he said,
by. using it as matchbox piece, if you
will help me-.
so each time after loading it we filled
the holes where the nipple tubes had been
with a few grains of powder, an operation
that in the days before percussion caps
and cartridges was always necessary.
Whenever the Captain succeeded in
drawing bead on piece of game it was
my part to advance and set fire to the
printing of the powder in the tube, rather
a delicate operation, by the way, and enc
that would have spoiled the aim of about
every. sportsman / have ever seen, except
ing Sigsbee.
"But it seemed not to faze him in the
slightest degree, and although he did not
always kill, the hits of the day were more
numerous than the misses by a big ma
'The way Captain Sigsbee maintained his
steadiness of hand in holding his aim long
enough for me to touch off the printing was
a sight for gods and men, but in the nature
of things, rapid firing was out of the ques-
ton and there were no wing shots.
Between the exaggerated stories that
Were told of his skill as matchbox
marksman and his pet parrot, Captain
SigSbee came to be famous man in Tampa
and it's vicinity before he left the place.
Cautiously enough, in the light of recent
developments, the captain then had many
friends among the officers of the Spanish
navy. and the parrot had been gift from
one of them 1t was an unusually clever
pathological individual and possessed the
power of profaning and conversing If at
least three tongues. 1t also knew how to
sing parodies on several hymns and psalms
and spiritual songs, its favorite selection
being the one of which the first lines are:
Go tell Aunt Abby
Go tell Aunt Abby
Go tell Aunt Abby
Her old gray goose is dead
ST have no idea. of course. that the crea-
notion mitch
il had learned. through experience, that its
range was limited and that il it began
either too high or too low its voice would
be unable to compass the fluctuations # the
melody.
being IMMERSED in the Use of tuning
fork, in spite of its cieverness in other
things, it was unable to get started right in
any other method than by trial, and it's
repeated beginnings on different keys in the
harSheSt OF tones were always highly
amusing to one to whom they We're un-
After you had heard it over and over
again, and for an hour or two at a stretch,
every day for week or ten days, however,
1t got to be a decided bore, and there were
half a dozen amongs the boarders at the
table who ached TO take the birds life. No
doubt some one would have done this had
not the captain been so universally popu-
:arhe only Objectionable trait I ever no
tfced in Captain SigSbee was his delight in
the torment that parrot used to infiict on
persons with good ears and sensitive
nerves.
scientific work at that time caused general
and favorable comment, and he was so
good a tallxer that he Csed TO succeed in
interesting all his friends In coast survey
His wife. who was and is a most charm.
ing woman. was sister of that Lieutenant
polar expedition lost his life in the far
north"