Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-12-03

vessel while that man went and ex
amined his sea chest. Then the cap
tain explained what the men wanted
of him. 1t seems the first man went
to his chest to get a pair of dry
stockings, and found that a small
bag of money that he had was miss
ing. AS there was several others of
THE crew there, he did not say any
thing about it to them, and on ex-
amining every mans chest, everyone
reported his money missing.
At that time there was no silver
or gold money in circulation in the
United States, but in Cuba, American
silver and gold could be had, so each
one of our crew wanted some Ameri-
can money to bring home. Each
man got the captain to get months
pay in American silver
When it was found that the money
was missing, they suspected one of
the crew of the wrecked brig-the
man who was so disabled that he had
to be hauled out of the boat by
ropes, as he was helpless. He had
been i'll bed all the time, but the
others of the crew would stand watch
with our men to help handle the
vessel at all times, but the men all
said that the sick man could eat as
much as the we'll ones.
The captain told the men not to
mention the loss to any of the other
crew. Our captain and the captain
of the wrecked brig decided on
plan of action, and the next morning,
after breakfast, the captain asked me
to take the wheel and steer, as we
We're then passing Boston dight. |
was we'll acquainted with the chan
mel marks and could handle the YES
sci all right Then the captain told
the sick man as we'll as others. OF
course no one knew just what the
plan of the two captains was except
the officers. The two mates were
stationed at certain places on deck.
The sick man was the last to come
on deck. and he must have suspected
something, for as he came from the
forecastle to the poop deck, he was
ordered to go down to the main deck.
l ICit w 40 q IS ~ VI Io1'A pNCpS w So
down, and as he got to the deck he
started on the run around the main
mast and tried to get to the rail of
the ship, but the mate of the brig
was stationed there for that purpose,
and he sprang for his man
When the man found that he could
not reach the rail, he threw small
package toward the rail, thinking it
might go over the rail into the
water, but it struck near the top Of
the rail and dropped on deck. By
that time two or three men had hold
of the man, and when they searched
his clothes and examined the bag he
tried to throw over the rail, every
dollar was found.
The next thing to decide was what
to do with the man. The officers de-
cided that if it was reported to the
proper officials and the man arrested
and tried for theft, all the crew and
officers would be detained for
months, perhaps. AS the captain
was part owner of the schooner and
sailed her on shares, it was for the
best interest of himself and other
owners not to delay the vessel, So
it was decided not to report to the
officials and have the man arrested,
AS all the money had been recoV-
cred, none of the crew objected to
this.
Well. we arrived at the wharf and
made fast, and felt at home once
more. The thief was given some
good advice and a warning. The cap
tain and men of the shipwrecked
crew felt worse about the matter
than we did, for we had given the
NAM the host of care and our crew