tr E 671 .G78 Copy 2 THE "GREAT REPUBLIC." (copyright secured.) PRICE TEN CENTS. 261 South Fourth Street, PHILADELPHIA. T NOTES TROM THE LOG-BOOK OF THE SHIP ''GREAT REPUBLIC." (copyright secured.) CHAPTER I. HE following facts are collated from a roll of MSS., a friend informs ns he picked op on the North Carolina shore, somewhere near Cape Hatteras. The sheets, like Mr. F. Cooper's friend Long- Tom Cotfln, bear unmistakable signs of having been at sea, and are so badl}- stained with salt water as to be almost illegible. They appear to be a portion ol the diary of a passenger in a vessel called the Great Repiihlic. As we said before, the MSS. is not only badly mutilated by the action of the salt water, but is very incomplete, rendering it difficult to obtain a con- nected narrative. The writer, though evidently not a nauticnl man, appears to have been a pretty close observer of passing events on board, and to be not altogether satis- fied with the manner in which the ship was worked, as he thouirht that she was often run more in the interest of THE CREW MUTINY. the crews than either the pasgengers or owners; and that the number of officers and crew was out; of all proportion to the work performed or required. The Great Bepuhlic appears to have been an armed merchantman, or privateer, of forty gnns, and, when put upon the stocks, to have been only intended as a slow- going sailing vessel, and was then run in the interest of a foreign firm called Anglo, Welsh k Scott, (a fourth partner, named Patrick, had a slight interest in the v*'ork- ing expenses and losses of the firm), who had, or were supposed to have had, a " bottomry bond" on her, and who very much overcharged the ship's company for pro- visions. The, passengers, however, had determined to revolutionize things, and, watching their opportunity when the members of the firm were entangled in an Ad- miralty suit with the owners of a ship called the Louis Bourbon, had mutinied, and turned the guns on the crew, who, after many hotly-contested engagements, were com- pelled to quit the ship, and mighty glad they were to go, the Bepuhlic'-s passengers having developed a fighting- capacity which greatly astonished the Johnny bulls (as the crew and officers were called) who had been used to havfng everything their own way at sea. The passengers had no sooner obtained possession of the ship than they employed a shipwright, ntimed Jefi^erson, to put boilers into her, and who built them on what he called the Con- stitution pattern, and which were intended to be upright, but had got a decided list to leward. From the dimen- sions given in the MSS. she appears to have been the largest, if not the most powerful ship afloat. Trusting in the strength of her boilers, the^' fretpiently lashed down the safety-valve, and ran her at a speed which seriously endangered the safety of those on boii-d, especially as the frequent additions to her hull, and her somewhat un- wieldly size made her very slow at answering her helm. She originally sailed from the City of Brotherly Love, but where she is likely to bring up, judging from the small stock of home commodity now on board, the writer appears afraid to say. HOW THE SHIP WAS OFFICERED. The crew, instead of being hired in the usual way by the owners or agents, were chosen by the passengers — the otlicers for the cruise, which was generall}^ of four years' duration, and the foremast-hands, top-men, engi- neers, etc., just so long as they kept the ropes running smoothly, and the muchinery well lubricated, on which purpose they expended larger quantities of palm oil than any other ship's crew were known to have done. Not content with giving the choosing power to those who pos- sessed some little nautical knowledge, ever}^ adult male passenger on board was allowed his sa}^ in the choit;e of officers, many ot whom were totally unable even to sign their names to the list when they joined the ship, at a port called Oaslle Garden, and it was generall}" noticed that those passengers who had least freight or baggage on board, made the most noise, and had the most to say, when the ship was l)eing commissioned. The crew and passengers of the Republic were probably the most motley assemblage ever gathered in one vessel, or under one flag, and were from all parts of the earth, a large proportion from the isle of Pat-moss, who had volun- teered during diti'erent cruises, and wdio were principally conspicuous at the time the officers were being elected, and ironi their evident desire to bestow and hold the commissions amongst themselves, but this the passengers generally tolerated, partially from the well-known fact of their never having been able to get '' abaft the foremast " in their own ship. In addition to the usual complement of officers, there was what was called a Supreme Committee of Navigation (of from 8 to 7), whose duty it was to consult the'chart, tind caution the commodore and his officers when they were carrying too much steam in the boilers, or sailing too near the wind. The crew was divided into two watches, and were called the Republican watch and the Democratic watch ; and a pretty '' high old time " they generally kept of it, for their work was done in a very second-hand manner, and they certainh' were not very particular to " tick-olf '' the THE IIORSE-MARINES MUTINY. quantity of ship's stores and provisions delivered by the contractors and agents. However, they are likely to come out n-head in the long run, for, if they did very little watching, thej' generally got credit for a vast amount of ])rfying. The Quartermasters and Quartermasters' mates were se- lected from both watches, and used to meet in the pilot- house four times during a cruise, and were allowed toad- vise with the Commodore and his oHicers on all matters connected with the ship's course. Their pay was big, espe- cially as '' blowing " the fog-horn was tiie only duty most of them were lit for, but this did not satisfy them, and they were prett}' generally suspected ot assisting any of the passengers who had designs against the ship's pay chest, and being, like Mr. B. Harte's •' Heathen Chinee," fond of ways that were slippery, they traded otf their nautical in- fluence for palm oil. These liltle arrangments were gene- rally termed '"jobs," and were usually negotiated in the companion way. Their motto was " In God We Trust," but the writer hints at good reasons for supi)osing that the compliment was by no means returned, certaini}- not by their, fellow men, who were usually willing to trust them just as far as they could see them. The manuscript gives but brief mention of the earlier cruises of the ship, during one of which she came into collision with a ship lilted out by her former owners (A. W. & S.) and, afti;r capturing many of her small boats and alotof her marines (down in the Gulf of Mexico), suc- ceeded in beating her otf in a very handsome manner. She also had a sharp engagement with the i^owr6o^, but this resulted in about adraw\ Both parties being glad to haul off' and repair damages. She made several unevent- ful cruises after this, tdl,ornearh' all of which were quiet and protitable. CHAPTER II. THE boats' crews were allowed to make their own rules, and the crew of one of them, called the " Kan- sas," came near making a pretty mess of it, and in the end U. S. GEE AND HIS ^' LINE. did l)ri»ed a tremendous mutiny on board. The rumpus came about in tiiis way. Tlie coal trimmers were shipped under '* bonds," to the cavaliers (or horse-mnrines), who drew their pa3', and most terribly ill-used ihem, tntdino- olf their wives and children in any port at which they chanced lo call. The horse-marines wanted to ship a quantity of their coal-trimmers on the " Kansas," to which the crew ol)jected. This occurred first about the time that the ship was to be re-commissioned, and was one of the features of the cnnvass amongst the crew. The horse-marines ol»jec- ted to the new Commodore, threw up their commissions, and took possession of the ship forward of the pilot-house. They even went so far as to fire over the passenfiers' heads at the ship's colors, which they called the '' Grid- iron." Many of them declared tliey would never cut their hair or chantre their chew of tobacco until they had the ship in their own possession. For a time it looked as if they were likely to have thiny:s their own way, for he ships' marines, like a policeman wlien a street fight is in progress, were not to be found when wanted, having been ordered on duty in the " tops," and otlier out of the way places in the ship, having been sent by. the " fighting captain," wlio had been in sym[)athy with the mutineers, and eventually joined tiiem. in addition to this, the mutineers had removed the small arms from the chest and secreted them in the fore part of the ship. In the first free fight the mutineers were eurneuMy successful, and it was thought that they would obtain control of the machinery. They were also successlul in capturing a large number of the small boats wliich had been cruising round the ship, and watching the ports. This mischief was principally performed by the use of a a foreign-built l>oat, the Alia Blain 'er, which they pur- chased from the Jonnybulls, who always preferred supply- lying the combatants with ammunition and weapons to taking a hand in the fiuht. It was thought on all sides that the mutiny might have bee 1 (pielled much sooner had the crew wished to do so, but that the agony was prolonged through a conspiracy 6 THE TRUMPETERS. — YE " COAL-TRIMMERS. between the Quartermasters and some of the passengers — the former agreeing to rnn the ship before the wind, while some of the hitter supplied the combatants with ammunition and provisions from their private stores, and took " bottomry " bonds on the ship, in payment. However, after the rumpus had lasted for the whole ot one cruise and part of another, it was eventually l)r<'Uoht to a close, and such of the mutineers as did not jump overboard captured, by Uncle Sam Gee, who had from the first an idea that if he could only e-t thiuLito it — they trod right under tlieni, with a hear iness which rather astonished the Avca.rt'rs. and thci! h inded llieui over to the police. Next niorniiiii', thev vy. re taken before an alderman, and as some of them wui'e recognized ;