The National tribune., 1909-05-20

was the first thought of to restore the
status quozs The Niagara! Let me side
step here a bit to tell an incident Of
that affair:
When the gunboat Waterwitch, COM
rnanded by the gallant Winslow, sailed
past the Richmond. bearing p. ID. Q.
message TO the Niagara, he thus hailed
the Richmond: IF had your battery,
Capt Pope, wouldn't be showing my
heels to the enemy
Yes. il was the Niagara that was
summoned p. D. @. when feet of five
stanct st,ips were demoralized by the
Hollirls fiotilla, and altho Hollins con-
timed TO hoIicr and tell what further
damage he intended to inflict he failed
to do IT. Why? The Niagara had ar
rived How well ] remember the long
nights Of vigilant watching for the sec
ond coming of the Holiins ram. Our
men in the hammock netting on the
up-river side of the ship, each one with
an 11-inch shell at his feet, with in
structions to light the fuse and toss the
shell down the smokestack or any 9TH
er opening on the ram If she struck
us, But Hollins knew the Niagara s
mettle and stayed away. When later In
the year we resumed hostiiities with
the Pensacola forts the Niagara mag
unanimously took along the Richmond.
where at close quarters she was given
a chance to regain her prestige. lost in
the Hoilins affair. As The National
Tribune editor has well said. lowing
to her great draft the Niagara took a
safer position of shore, and while the
Richmond's bloody decks attested her
redemption. the Niagara, almost un-
scathed. with her big guns. knocked
the brick stuffing and garrison too, out
of Fort McRae. and reduced to kindling
wood the navy yard buildings and the
village of Warrenton, near by
Twice / distinguished myself while
one of the crew of this ship. / had
been ambitious for a rise in the Navy
when one day i became entagled in ths
dcrnish coil of the starboard- -main-top.
Notwithstanding -sail-boom tricing line
and was suddenly carried Is or 20 fee
skyward. ! was unable to maintain
this unexpected elevation, and The re-
sumption of my former position OF
5eck was even more sudden than my
lift upward. Again / was marked fol
destruction when. as berth deck cook
my stuff was chosen from 80 Others
and sent to the mast. where II wai
tested and tasted by Lieut. Silas Casey
Officer of the Deck. That was befor'
the pure-food act, but / believe Case!
is still living.
But there, Mr. Editor. if I were no
so busy getting ready my little gardei
plot. In which to sow some Congress
Hon Amos Allen. Representative il
Congress from the First Maine District
7 would like to write for The Gationa
Tribune readers z little OF the histor.
made By the frigate Niagara and he
gallant crew the first year of the civi
war / know that in 1862 she wen
into the drydock at Boston, and there
by order of that old barnacle bottor
sheIIback. Gideon Welles, she wa
razed. .Sas they called IL, her sides pierce
for another tier of guns. Some of m
former shiDmatss on her have told IN
that the change quite ruined her, bot
as a seaboat and fighting ship. BJ
even then she served a splendid pul
pose by being sent abroad, where he
former record and prestige, as well q
her magnificent proportions, command
ed respect, If not something akin
awe, for the American Navy.
A dozen years or so after the clos
of the war. standing on the Cape Eliza
beth, Me- headland, l witnessed tn
passing of the dismantled hull of III
Niagara as she was towed to point
the Bay of Fundy, where 60-foot ris
and fall of the tides gave opportunii
to beach and break up the great hull
II is long years since then, and
would not now like to say how Ion
the sun. just risen in the casters hor
zon, was obscured by the passing corps
of the Niagara. Just this,' and hay
finished:
in the Pensacola bombardment or
OF the Niagara's big broadside canno
Was cracked and condemned 1t al
ers that in dismantling the ship Dr.