The Republican journal., 1911-02-16
Capt. c. F. Carver.
A Deep Sea Skipper Spins Yarn t Old
Seafaring Days.
[From the New York Evening SUM-

line muClne0T SnOWeu MS uedu dC LIE
o'csle door and l took the small pisto
] had in my pocket and shot him in the
temple" Thus in mild, unemotiona
voice Capt. C. F. Carver of Camden, Me-.
told of the climax of mutiny aboard his
old ship, the Charlotte Littlefeld, away
back in the '70s. Capt. Carver, who is
of Capt. Lincoln Colcord of the American
spun his yarn of seafaring "reminiscences.
Capt. Carver is Capt. Colcord's uncle,
and away back in the old days they sailed
together in the Charlotte Littlefeld. Now
Capt. Colcord is taking his old skipper on
vacation" voyage to the Isthmus OF
Tehuantepec.
Capt. Carver is striking figure of
that fast-disappearing school of sea
commanders which, years ago, helped
to make the Yankee merchant marine a
famous institution around the world.
For all his years, he is powerful man,
6 feet | inch tall, with white hair and
large features. His shoulders are broad
and his hands big, and one can readily
believe that he held the pistol steady
when he shot the mutineer. He sailed
for years in the ships owned by Charles
R. Flint.
THE old man is not dead yet, although
my obituary was published recently IN a
Rockland paper while was sick in Bos-
tom he said with twinkle in his eye.
The doctors say I'm good for fifteen
years yet"
The shippers list of ships is long
one. He has served in briggs and banks
and California packets in his long seafar-
ing life. Two of his children were born
at sea and he has seen voyages IN which
mutinv took part and in which slaves
were carried. There was little trouble
on one of the Shaving voyages. He will
tell YOU all in quiet and dignified voice,
with none of the garrulous buster which
might seem natural under the clrclm-
stances.
His worst experience with mutinous
crew came in 1873, when he was IN com
mand of the Littlefield, bound from
Liverpool for Halifax.
THAT was troublesome affair, said
Capt. Carver. my wife was along with
our two-month-old baby, which was born
off the Cape of Good Hope. My brother
Roscoe was mate. Before we sailed we
We're told our crowd was pretty rough
one, but my brother and l were used to
handling men in those days, and we
thought we would get along all right.
We had not been out many hours and
were running down the Irish Channel at
night when my brother had an alterca-
ton with the lookout on the TO csle head.
Another man, coming up, stabbed Roscoe
in the back with a sheath knife. He
tumbled over and was lying there when
| came up. | picked up a capstan bar
and the two men lodged into the TO 'csle.
oTt apI thnrn
him up as best we could. He was shiv
ering all over but soon recovered suf-
ficiently to take his rifle and say, I'm
going to kill that man.
Il took a small pistol | had and the
second mate took Ratchet, and we went
on deck. The men had all gone forward,
but now we could see them coming aft
again and knew we would have to settle
things right there. The ringleader was
a big Irishman and it was he who had
done the stabbing. He said he was going
to take charge of the ship or he would
compel NE to put back. | said the ship
was going to Halifax or hell, but not
back to Liverpool, as | never had put
ship back and was not going to begin.
At that moment Roscoe shot him in the
left wrist, his knife fell to the deck and
he made rush for the TO csle
All hands followed him and they soon
barricaded themselves forward Another
leader then appeared in the person of a
German sailor. He made practically the
Same demands as the other, but I told
them they must all surrender within ten
minutes or we would open fire on them.
One by one they began struggling aft,
and when the ten minutes We're up only
half dozen were left in the 70 cse.
With the second mate l walked forward
to see what they were going to do When
we were just forward of the mainmast
the German showed himself for a mo-
ment and | shot him in the temple The
wound was not serious one, but it ended
the mutiny aboard the Littlefeld, and
1--WE had no further trouble that voyage"
Capt. Carver went back few years to
tell the story Of little trouble with
Chinese coolies aboard the ship Alice
Thefndike. This took place just before
the opening of the Civil War.
Il was mate of the Thorndike when
we loaded coolies at Whampoa, to be
taken to Havana, to work as slaves on
the sugar plantations. We had about 300
aboard between decks. and were not
many days out when we learned through
the interpreter that about fifty of the
coolies had banded together for the pur-
pose of killing me and if possible getting
control Of the ship. We kept them be-
tween decks most of the time, but one
day as | stood near ventilator heard
screaming cheer from the coolies, and
knew they were ready for an outbreak.
Capt William Thorndike of Rockland
was skipper of the vessel, and he decided
it was time to quell the coolies. We serv-
ed out revolvers and cutlasses to the
Crew and mustered all hands at the main
mast. The coolies began to swarm up
through the forward hatch armed with
knives. They were just the worst sort
of slaves, and l thought we were in for
it. When they saw US well armed they
lost their courage and retreated below,
and when | led the men down among
them they were all sound asleep, so fast
asleep, in fact, that we could not awaken
any of them. They behaved after that,
and we reached Havana in $50 days from
Whampoa. We sold the coolies for SOS
apiece"
Following this voyage the Alice Thorn
dixie was chartered to carry lumber from
Bangor to Australia. AS the Confeder-
ate Navy was preying on Yankee COM
merce and the owners of the Thorndike
thought she might get into trouble, the
name of her hailing port was changed to
Liverpool and after she got to sea the
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