The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-19
THE CRUISE IF
 THE GRAPESHOT Sore Plight of a War Tug In
 the Year 1877 DRAGGED INTO NEW YORK Could Not Keep Up Steam Enough to Pump Water From BiIee and Travel at the Same Time.
 Plight of Navy.

| The chief of bureau and the lieutenant I stood on the wharf of the old experiment. I al battery at Annapolis looking down on the deck of the Grapeshot. Although ere 1 ated in the humble class of North River | tugboats the little craft for many years 1 has had her name inscribed in the ex- 1 elusive list of vessels of the United l States navy" and as she sat quietly n l her berth, with bright paint work and a clean secured deck, her pert nose was 1 cooked up with the saucy air of her race, | as if instinct with pride of station. It was true that she weighed but a | scant fifty tons and had never mounted I a gun in her life, but many a ton of gun 1 powder had been carried snug and safe 1 under her apron, and many big man-o . war had been slowed and butted and bull lied by her into and out of awkward ] berths. Alas she was old and full of internal ailments and now the question before the house was what to do with her The lieutenant had diagnosed her case somewhat as follows:
 Her deck and upper works are tight as drum, sir, and she is as sound as a nut right down to her keel, but she must have a new boiler. for this one Is positively
 
 of steam Then, again, she had a blade | knocked off her screw about five years ago. and by dint of running on three legs ever since her stern bearings are so bad ly worn that have to keep them cas.lsed with waste whenever she is not running to keep her afioat. And, commodore that makes a serious combination when she Is doing any work, for there Is not steam enough to run the engine and the bilge raI Iraaf, h0f ct un hac t. b. Inn about with them that makes things mighty complicated at times. Anyhow, | don't need her here: but it seems a pity not to fix her up, for there is lots of good work in the little packet yet if she is in the right place.
 Aye. young man." said, the commodore, "and there's the rub. The United States navy is bankrupt at this minute, and down here she cannot be repaired within the allowance that I could spare. If there was only some way that I could get her to New York without it costing a mint of money she would be worth her weight In gold, but 1t can't be done, and there we are."
 Navy's Slow Pay.
 The commodore's remark that the navy was bankrupt was no careless figure of speech, but a positive and lanentable fact. For years the political heelers from Maine to Florida had fattened on the an- nual naval appropriations until, in this summer of 1877, even the appropriation for pay of the navy had given out, and neither the commodore nor the lieutenant as they stood there that day had received cent of their lawful due salary for more than four months. Only few days before the lieutenant, who was in charge of the station, had succeeded in selling the grass crop of the battery in advance C.. <a- Fl, al>. lutely necessary tests of gunpowder and arms to be issued to the service. It was a literal truth that, as far as civil admin istration and material were concerned, the Turkish navy was in better shape than our own.
 The lieutenant kicked the stringpiece of the wharf impatiently, showed his cap to the back of his head, and snapped out: Let me try it, commodore, don't know how much the canal tolls are, but there is coal enough in the pile here, my | machinist can run the engine, one of the field hands can look out for the boiler, and will do the rest So really the only expense of any account would be our transportation back from New York" The commodore laughed as he thought of the deal in grass, and he responded: All right, my boy, try 1t your own way, only for heavens sake don't let her
 
 be In a bad fix. How long will 1t take you to get ready?"
 T can start at daylight tomorrow, think, sir," and as the commodore step ped into his boat to cross the river the old battery woke up and things began 70 move.
 There was no need of making an in spection, for the lieutenant knew already all the available details, and while the A4I1 ovn1c lad iv, fxAy nlx cutting, were putting the coal aboard, he sat on the stringpiece and made few notes. and they ran like this: Find out where the Delaware and Chesapeake Ca nal begins and ends; ditto Raritan Canal. No compass, no ground tackle; never mind. Put the old condemned set of grate bars back aboard. Try the running lights. Some boards, saw, hammer and nails; wire, breaker of water; borrow a my overcoat, uniform and a clean collar to report to navy yard in. Draw $50.
 Early Troubles.
 And that was about all Dixon, the machinist, was told to be ready to shove off at daylight, and Big Sam grinned, as happy as a boy with a pocketful of mar bles when he was told off to tend the boiler and have steam at 5 o'clock, for to him New York was an unknown para QlSe. On Lllu6 they WcTo Oll,h WltH Lue lieutenant at the wheel, Dixon at the throttle and Sam keeping the water hot, and the little Grapeshot kicked up her heels as if she were off for a picnic. In fact, she was so frolicsome that, turning the buoy into the bay channel, she car ried away the starboard wheel rope. There was no time to stop for a little thing like that, so the helmsman jumped aft and steered with a heayer under the tiller, while Dixon mended the wheel rope with a bit of wire. For time things went along smoothly, and then Sam's anxious face was poked into the pilot house with the announcement that leak had started in joint of the main steam pipe. and 1t was "gettin' wuss mighty fast"
 "All right, Sam; get your ax and chop the old rope fender open. Strand the joint and heave the turns on. Pound rope and then you and Dixon wrap that joint and heave the turns on. Pound your turns snug
 So said. so done, and that trouble was mastered.
 Then, after Baltimore had been passed and the broad mouth of the Susquehanna opened out, stiff breeze came down out of the river, and Miss Grapeshot began to find 1t steep climb against the wind. She was putting into 1t bravely when again Sam stuck his head up.
 "De watah in de bilge, sah is clean up to de ash pit. and less we stop it'll put my fires out"
 Here was calamity certainly, for If the miles. The nearest shore was moro than vva31o oxud nd ho liant ,,rof