The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-11-05
A FLATRoATs LONG VOYAGE.

Moored for few days rest before re-
suming her course in the Mississippi
currents to her destination at New Or
leans the "shanty," or trading boat,
Sargassa, which, with her captain and
crew of three ablebodied rivermen,
has come from the faraway Yellow
stone, 500 miles beyond the source Of
the Missouri, her owner Bargaining with
Indians and white, collecting buffalo
horns, old iron, junk of every de-
scription, for sale to st. Louis, Kansas
City, Memphis and New Orleans deal
ers.
Borne as the eddying currents night
dictate, propelled at times by hand.
vainly endeavoring to avoid the shift
ing sandbars the the drifting snags, and
the wire ferries which span the upper
rivers, the sargassa has been nearly
six months doing her 1000 miles from
Billings Mont, to st. Louis. Alto
gether, more than 800 miles will be
covered.
Capt. Henry C. Sharpless, the owner
Of the Sargassa, has many strange
things to tell of that long, but to him
never tiresome journey. For days the
little boat plunged down the swiftly
flowing Yellowstone. upon which no
steamboat piles, and where for a week
at time no human being was to be
seen.
Drifting onto sandbars in the big
Muddy" where at times the captain
was compelled to discharge tons Of
freight in order to realease the boat,
then to lay by for days to regain his
cargo, the Sargassa's crew had plenty
to occupy them all the time.
"Of course, we had to lay UP every
night. 1t was hard enough to get along
in daytime" said Capt. Sharpless
yesterday. I'VE never weary, however.
We would go out and chase rabbits,
and some time lay off day or two
along the Yellowstone to hunt bigger
game. There was plenty Of elk and
game of all sorts, rainbow trout, ripen-
ing nuts, so we never suffered for good
food. /,
''The yellowstone Is magnificent
country for scenery, and the current
swept us along at five-mile-an-hour gait
past the white-caped Crazy Mountains
and Big Horns We enjoyed even the
loneliness of the region. When we
would come to some little trading place
or post office settlement the people
would come out as though we were an
entire circus outfit. They were glad to
trade and glad to talk.
when we struck the Big Muddy at
Fort Buford, N. D., things began to get
more ragged. We thought we had
passed all the wire ferries on the Yell
lowstone, and from the temporary tents
We. had used till then we moved into a
newly constructed 'shanty,' built at the
stern of the boat, which was cabin and
galley in one. We were fooled about
the wire ferries, however, and one day
without ten minutes notice we saw one
of the things stretching out ahead Of
us with a strong current bearing us
down upon it. There was some scram-
bling among the crew. We finally got
one of our big oars under the wire and
got it on deck. Then the current gave
us twist, and the wire and the crew
got in a tangle, and the first thing
knew 7 was lying in heap in the scrap
pile. We got past it at last, but there
was some river talk on board that boat
that would not look we'll in print.
"Up at a spot they call De Gray on
the Upper Missouri we got on the worst
bar of the trip, and it was not until we
had thrown about seventy-five tons Of
stuff overheard that we got afloat. We
managed to get some skiffs and fish
about sixty tons of it back. That took
about week"
Captain Sharpless makes fiat boating
pay. He disposed of about one hundred
tons of material at Kansas City for
fourteen dollars ton, and will have no
trouble in getting equally good prices
for what he has left.
AS soon as he unloads here he will
start out for Memphis and will have
picked up another boat-load of junk to
sell there. He will then have third
cargo to pick up for sale in New Or
leans.
Captain Sharpless is from Philadel-
phia Quaker family, and has been on
the western rivers nearly all his life
st. Louis Republic.