The Republican journal., 1911-04-06
PICKING UP A BOAT.
An Interesting Renaissance by Capt. Ed.
Richardson.

AN~A-.->-eOOO--0~
Richardson.
In one of the last years of the Civil
War l was "boy" on schooner which
was employed by the Government as a
transport, and at one time loaded with
hay and provisions for the army and
bound to Fortress Monroe for orders.
The vessel was fairly good, but not we'll
found" in all particulars. With cotton
canvas at more than two dollars yard
considerable false economy was often
practiced regarding sails, and even COM
mon tar was a luxury. Our poorest
equipment, however, was the boat. Yes
sells of that size had but one boat for all
purposes, and ours had evidently had
hard usage and might be rather unfit for
any urgent demands at sea, though it
served very we'll for its duty in smooth
waters.
We met with fierce March storm and
heavy sea carried away the old boat
from the davits and it was lost entirely.
While scudding before the same gale the
two-reefed foresail was split and there
was no spare sail on board. The torn
sail was hauled down, reefed to the gaff
and set in that way-using the lower
half instead of the upper-and the YES
sci was then hove to.
The cargo was light and l think the
schooner did not behave well: she seemed
to occasionally drop off a sea and bring
up with hard shock, as though the lee
beam-ends had struck ledge. heard
the captain say 81 don't like this!' AS
he was an able man, who used no idle
words, the remark worried met might
mean some danger that could not see
or understand But nothing further
went wrong and later the weather be-
came fine.
A few days after the storm we were
sailing along with a beam-wind and a
moderate sea. The foresail had been re-
paired and no other damage had been
done by the storm save the apparent
irreparable loss Of the boat.
In those days and war-conditions it
would no doubt be quite impossible to
procure a suitable boat in Virginia; at
best, we might secure some mud-skif at
a war-price. think l may also say that
in those days there were no sharper eyes,
and none made more use of, than mine
own. l rushed aft and reported to the
captain that there was something" off
tGleeward and that believed it to be a
boat, bottom up. He was quickly made
to see it, and 1 now fully and sincerely
believe that it was the only useful thing
l did while attempting to serve on that
schooner. He kept the vessel "away";
skillfully steering down to the floating
object and then came to alongside ola
boat! which was quickly turned over in
the water and then hosted on deck.
This prize was of the kind and size to
perfectly fit our vessel and so new that
it had yet been only primed over with
one coat of lead-colored paint. There
was no name or mark on it, and it contain
ed nothing but small sounding line and
lead. dashed to one of the thwarts. The
boat had no doubt been lost from some
other vessel in the same storm that took
ours away.
Of all our crew on that schooner, there
is now but one other man living-Mr.
"Stilf" Eaton-and he will we'll remem-
Der the case. He and | still meet as
often as we may, and like "Ships that
pass in the night, speak each other in
passing
When our schooner arrived in port the
prize had been handsomely painted in
two colors, with water-line and bead,
rudder made, with steering yoke and
fancy ropes, so that Capt. Eben Brown
of the "Curtis," reported at the Fort
for orders in as good style and as worth
lily as though he were the commander of
some long, black, cruising cutter of those
rakish, sailing days. RICHARDSON.
Tampa, Fla, March 20, 1911.
Children Crv
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