Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-02-03
HOW CAPT. CURTIS
GOT A TOW.

a
waterfront fraternity could cite, with
/ the zest Of the envious, some two or
/ three cases wherein Capt. Eben Curtis
/ had missed his calculations, but these
/ haps were only the exceptions that proved
the rule. The rule was that what Capt.
Curtis undertook to do was as good as
done His general success was the more
surprising inasnuch as, from neither a
moral nor practical standpoint, was he
/ by amy means conservative i'll regard to
| what he was willing to undertake.
! In the halcyon days of his career great
/ public movements in New York created
demand for asphalt With a schooner
Of ordinary sailing qualities it was not
the height of prudence to agree on the
| lst of May to deliver in New York by
/ he middle of June cargo of asphalt
from the Caribbean sea- under forfeit
Of several thousand dollars, but for Capt
| Curtis this was comparatively a wise aud
cautious enterprise.
lie signed the contract aud sailed. lie
bad 20 occasion to delay in raising
crew by reason of the fact that he kept
enc crew pretty constantly with him.
finding it profitable to have men whom
he knew and on whom he could rely
for there were occasions in his way Of
doing business when he had need to call
for services which, in the language Of
the law. cannot properly be constructed
as the ordinary duties of seamen."
Fortune smiles on the beginnings of
his venture. He made the run south in
more than ordinarily good time and took
on upward of half his cargo with equal
| dispatch, but then friction with the
native iaborers and one of the periodical
upheavals of government combined to re-
| tard the loading and the work dragged
slowly while the precious days few by
with leaps and bounds. When he was
finally ready to sail he had time enough
for a quick passage, but very little mar
gin of inclcment weather. He had
good wind and clear sky, however, until
almost the end of the trip, then, without
warning, it fell calm, most unusually so.
considering the latitude and on the last
stretch of his race against time he began
to drift idly, helplessly, within a hun
bred miles of port.
There was no prospect of immediate
change in this state of affairs and Che
situation was rapidly growing desperate.
At the outset Capt Curtis had hoped
that breeze would spring up and re-
fused to send for Il towboat, as time Wore
on and no breeze came he changed his
mind, and, to avoid the forfeit. would
| gladly have seen the greater part of his
| earnings of the trip spent for the long
and costly tow, but no tugs were so far
out nor was he able to speak any in
| ward bound steamer and THUS send word
/ to their owners ashore.
! Now, like the police on land, revenue
cutters. the police of the thrco-mile limit
are rs rule. conspicuously in evidence
"A a their presence is least desirable
and never on hand when they are wanted
/ Consequently Capt. Cunts was surprised
@0d pleased when he sighted the United
States steam cutter "Sneaky Dick" ON
/ the horizon holding a course that would
/ eventually bring her within signaling dis
/ lance OF his own craft Ii is not at once
clear why this fact should have awakened
any particularly Joyous emotions in Capt
| Curtis breast, for the rendering oratuit-
! Gus assistance to vessels not in absolute
/ distress forms no part of the duty of the
revenue marine; nor was Capt. Curtis
such friend and admirer of the service
waiting its acquaintance
| Nevertheless. after Watching her for n
moment, he executed a few steps of the
hornpipe, button-holed the mate in a mo.
ment of earnest and private conversation.
and called all hands on deck. He smoke
to them on the relations of master and
/ crew and dwelt on the duties of good and
i loyal seamen, pointing out that they
ought to chearfully execute any orders
! mat were given them, however extraor-
binary those orders might appear to be-
lie concluded by commanding his crew to
mu'lny and to raise the greatest hullaba-
| too possible short of actually spilling
blood CT setting the ship atire
After the first shock of establishment
has men entered into the spirit of this
sham rebellion heartily, indeed their en-
lhusiasm was not far from precipitat-
ing the real thing. BY the time the
Sneaky Dick came near enough to make
out the schooner more or less distinctly
the officer on her bridge noticed suspicious
activity aboard the smaller vessel and
he Shatehed up his marine glasses in time
TO see some one fight his way aft throuob
/ a knot of excited sailors. moment LATER
an ensign. union down. struggling half
way 10 the schooner's mizzeu-pcak and
then was lowered SO rapidly as to indi.
cate that whoever had hoisted it had been
/ oNerpowered.
There is a hurried chorus OF bells pinas
] ana ouS'eS aboard the cutter, her engines
1 5'oprea, and IN tricc a gig went over
E'r Nide' a stream of men slid down the
,"hS' ana long before the cutter lost HOY
.eau"ay their quick and steady regula.
no" stroke had pulled them halfway to
Ilresocd vessel If ,rns n,.ian,,t - -