The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-03-23

years, but he kept in the service little
over 81 months and was given one-uuar-
ter extra pay for the balance of the time.
His only fault to find with the naval SER
vice concerned the character of the food
served on board the Constellation.
DIET OF SALT BEEF AND BREAD,
"Our principal Diet he says, twas
| salt beef and bread, with pork and beans
twice week. The pork had been kept
in the storehouses of tropical climate,
and some of it had become so foul that
the hungriest seaman was repealed by it..
| Sometimes we made 'scouse'-a combins-
| ton of potatoes and the slush that came
| from this pork.
''Our supply of American bread be-
came exhausted before the cruise was
half finished, and we reolenished from
the storehouse at Alexandria. This
bread, which was kept in sacks, was in
spected after leaving Gibraltar, and the
top was found to be covered with large
| green worms. The sailors had their pref
| erence of eating that or going without.
| Although we landed at several ports be-
fore reaching our destination l could
never learn that any pains were taken to
secure fresh supply of bread"
Capt. Mills was discharged from the
navy February, 1865, and again took up
| the career of fisherman. He was en-
Sable Island banks when he heard that
the war was over and that President Linz
coin had been shot. The news was
| brought by Westport, Me-, vessel that
had left home some time after Capt.
Mills departure.
"Have you heard about the assassina-
tom" read the Westport schooner's sig
nal flags.
"No," replied Capt. Mills. ''Whose?"
president Lincoln's, came the as
founding answer.
Then followed brief message telling
of the wars close. "We were glad to
know that the war was over, says Capt.
Mills, but the men were ugly enough
when they learned of the Presidents
fate
Capt. Mills went to the banks four
years longer, sailing out of Westport.
In 1869 he bought the mail route between
Rockland and North Haven, making
three trips a week in the 30-ton sloop
Joseph Agate. This craft became i'm
prisoned in the ice, and when released
was blown onto Flddlers ledge and be-
came total loss.
Capt. Mills next command was the
packet schooner Greyhound. in which he
crossed the bay in all sorts of weather
for the next 20 years, increasing the
mail service to once a day. The little
steamer Sylvia was then built for him by
DR.. G. C. Weld of Boston, who has a
summer estate at North Haven, and
since its advent the residents have enjoy
ed the luxury of two mails day for four
months in the summer. The Sylvia re-
manned the North Haven mail steamer
for 10years, until the route was sold to
steamboat company.
In his long career as packet captain
Mr., Mills made many hazardous trips
across the bay, but never had disaster.
thoroughfare so tightly that shipping
was at a standstill, and Capt. Mills car
ried the mails across the ice to Vinal-
haven.
2O-MILE JOURNEY OVER SALTWATER ICE.
There was another frigid winter when
residents drove in sleighs from Carver's
Harbor, Vinalhaven, to Islesboro, ard
from there to Belfast, 20-mile journey
that has never been duplicated on the
Maine coast. There were two weeks in
that winter when people went afoot from
Pulpit Harbor, North Haven, to Frenchs'
Beach, Lincolnville, journey of about
seven miles over salt water.
1t was not Capt. Mills good fortune to
be at North Haven when Gen. Grant
paid his involuntary visit there, but when
the packet called next day he found the
residents of the island in state of much
excitement. The page of the hotel reg
lister bearing the signatures of Gen.
Grant and the other members of his dis
tinguished party is still carefully pre-
served there; also half burned cigar
which the general smoked while relating
war anecdotes to the awe-stricken vii
layers.
The solitary shipwreck in which Capt.
Mills figured took place in 1855 at the
close of a long voyage in the schooner
Excelsior, in which it was necessary to
go all the way to New Orleans to find
purchaser for the cargo of lime which
she carried. The steamer Plymouth
Rock, on which he engaged passage for
home, ran into a schooner, and his de-
parture from Boston on the steamer
Memenon Sanford was delayed until mid
night.
Under full head of steam, at next
morning the Sanford ran onto Thatcher's
Island, a disaster which cost the COM
pany about $4,000. The passengers
were taken off by boats which f1ocked
around the wreck and scattered to their
various destinations, Capt. Mills being
taken to Rockport, Mass, in dory;
In the following year Capt. Mills
brother, Capt. Ambrose Mills, was
knocked overheard from the schooner
Golden Cloud and drowned. In the at
tempt to save him the schooner's boat
was lost. His wife and little child were
witnesses of the tragedy. The vessel
was bound for Pictou, N. S., but after
the loss OF her master, Capt. Willard
Mills took command, and put back to
Vinalhaven.
Since leaving the packet service 10
years ago, Capt. Mills has been night
Waterman on the city's principal wharf.
Capt. Mills is married. and has one
daughter, Mrs. George Hatch.
Capt. Mills is very proud of the quail
fications which entitle him to member
ship in the Sons of American Revolution
His great-grandfather, Jonas Loker, was
killed at the battle of Bunker Hill, and
his name appears on the tablet in that