The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-08-21
HOUSEBOAT WHICH
HAS SEEN WORLD
NOW RESTS HERE
Captain Hendricks Tells EVE
Ming STAR Reporter the
Stories He Has Lived.
CRAFT HAS BEEN HIS
HOTEL FOR SIX YEARS
It's Skipper, Hale and Hearty at
63, Says He'll Die
in 1t.

yes, sir. I've lived in this boat for
the past six years. and during that
time I've travelled hundreds. yes, thou
sands, of miles and seen many strange
sights and odd people. This is all the
home I've got. It's small. but snug
and comfortable, and l guess I'll spend
The rest of my days right here
So said Captain f. B. Hendricks, of
the good house-boat Crescent, in AN
interview with an EVENING STAR
reporter recently. His square-nosed
little craft rests on the Passaic river
off the Centre street bridge. The cap
tain is n Yankee, born and educated in
Connecticut. He is all and straight,
and his face is bronzed by years of ex-
poslre to the wind and sun. He up
held the Stars and Stripes In the tenn
pesttous days of the Rebellion. Cap
tain Hendricks today looks, at Sc years,
like a man with whom it would not
pay % trifs.
His stories of adventure are stories
he has lived.
CAPTAIN Hendricks. in his six years
wand,rings in his boat in which he has
eaten, lived and slept in q low-roofed
cabin, eight feet long and four feet
wide. has covered a distance Of at least
four thousand miles.
Six years ago he left Newark in his
boat, III alone, not even his present
companion, his little dog Prince, being
with him at that time. He sailed down
into New York bay and then headed
%northward Up the Hudson he went
and through the Erie canal into the
great lates. His boat was propelled
only by sGils and oars, although at the
present tine he has a three-and-a-half
horsepower gasoline engine, which will
drive the boat along at a good speed.
During the day the captain sailed his
boat along and at night tied up to the
bank at any convenient place.
Reaching, the lakes, he began to
cruise along the shores, mingling with
the people in the neighboring cities and
towns and telling them stories of the
sights he mad seen. During the coolest
parts of the winter he would at times
abandon his small o and so and
live with the people he met on shore,
but only for a short time. Ono winter
he spent with the Mackinaw ndian in
their wild country north of AXE Michi-
gan. Here he studied their language,
trapped with them and learned their art
of making shell ornaments.
With the topper Miners.
Another winter lie lived among the
miners on the southern shores of Lake
Superior. For these sturdy people the
captain has the highest admiration.
Three years g Captain Hendricks
sailed down Lake Michigan alone
through one of the most dangerous
bodies of water known to mariners
through the canals and into the a
waters of the Mississippi.
When he enlisted in the Ninth Con-
necticut Infantry, being at that time II
years old, at the outbreak of the Civil
Captain Hendricks declared that
he did not know the butt of a gun from
the barrel. When Lee surrendered,
Captain Hendricks. carrying three
wounds received in battle, was regarded
as one of the crack shots of the Flight
ing Ninth" His van experience helped
him when he was attacked one night on
the Mississippi shores.
Threatened with death and fired upon