Norwich bulletin., 1916-04-01

at the same time laid an embargo up- on vessels in port; so that fer a short | time there was a complete lun in marine affairs. It is easy to guess the effect all this had upon Norwich com ruerce.
 However. the West India trade soon revived, and was carried on by the Norwich shipmasters and merchants, sn spite of great hazards and difficult ties. Indignities were heapsd upon American seamen, and often when not wholly confiscated, the vessel would 0e ransacked from stem to stern, and plundered of many valuable articles It quite destroys any element of Pacifsm we may have in us at the Tresent time, to read what the early Norwich seamen suffered during that troubled time.
 Capt. Frederick Tracy, taken by the English and carried into Montserrat, lost valuable cargo by decree of the Admiralty Court. Capt Glover was condemned at St. Kits. Capt. Gil- bert, after being deprived of part of his lading, was relesaed.
 The French priyateers, slipping out of the island ports. and waylaying the customary paths of commerce. caught many a rich prize, the courts before which the captured vessels were car ried rarely failing to condemn the cargo as contraband.
 Capt. Sanger, in the ship Chloe, Was captured, and he an dhls people were stripped of every article of value, even to the clothing on their persons The captain himself was set ashore at Laguira, barefoot. The vessel was afterwards released; but at a later period was again captured, Ebenezer Cooley, her master, carried in.o Guad- aloupe and the vessel never appeared in Norwich waters afterward.
 In February, 17e7, Capt. Webb, in a voyage to Jeremie, was taken and carried into Petit Guave, where he was detained ninety days, a quarter Of his cargo taken and he lost all his crew, except one man, by illness.
 Capt. Isaac Hull, who afterward Won fame as hero of the frisate Con- stitution, but who was at that time a ship-master in the West India trade, was repeatedly arrested in his voyages by hostile cruisers. He was taken in :hay, 17s7, in the ship Minerva. of New London, and lost both vessel and cargo. He returned home and in July started on another voyage in the schooner Beaver, of Norwich. He
 was again captured and carried into Porto Rico, where he was once more
 condemned.
 In March, the brig Betsey. J. Lord commander, was taken by the French
 carried to Guadaloupe, tried and re-
 leased; afterward taken by the Eng
 fish carried into Tortola, and a second
 time tried and released.
 There were exciting times when the
 Sally, Capt. Boswell, bound to Jeremie
 with nearly ninety head of stock or board. was taken by the armed brig
 Pandure, of fourteen guns, the pri- vateer firing a broadside before hail ing. She took out twenty-one men nearly the whole crew-and putting
 eleven Frenchmen in their places ordered the vessel to a French port Eight days afterward, the Sally was taken by an English brig, carried in 70 neutral port, and there given UT l to Capt. Boswell; but only after hall her cargo had been retained for sal. | wage.
 The brig Hannah, Capt. Park Ben. | jamin, was also twice taken in one voyage, and after some loss and de. | tention was released.
 Today we are interested In German
 and other ships informed and fancy | that what is happening in moderT times has never happened before Blu the seamen of old Norwich wen through just as exciting experiences
 in small way, during the time wheI England ard France were at war. The Norwich ship, Young EaeIe | having returned from Liverpool fl ] August, sailed Sept. 18th for the Wes | indies, under Capt Absalom Pride with no contraband goods whatever or
 board, but that did not prevent hei
 from being taken by a French priva. teer, carried into port and con. ! 3emned, solely on the plea that sht
 was not furnished with a role d'eduf- | page, or registry of the crew Tht vessel was however redeemed by Capt | Pride.
 The Charlotte Capt. Alexander Nor gan, in a homeward passage iron Demerara, was overhauIed by a pri
 vateer sloop of four guns, from Quad | 'Ioupe and striped of everything val | uable, even to the charts books
 clothes and cash Of the officers. Tn,
 Lark, Capt. Gilbert, was boarded ant
 searched by an English twenty-gul | frigate, and released, but was twic | chased by French privateers, iron
 which she barely escaped.
 | In March, 179S, the schooner Polly | Capt. Smith, was taken by an Englisl vessel near St. Bartholomew, robbel of a negro boy, forty shoats, and S2O I in cash, and then released.
 Yet in our day we fancy they le a dull, humdrum life in old-time Nor l wich!
 THE DICTACRAPH