A BLOCKADE VENTURE.
During the blockade of Buenos Ayres a clipper bark laden with flour was fitted out at Boston with the express purpose of running in. The late Augustus Hemenway was her supercargo. After a tedious voyage she arrived off Buenos Ayres, and found the blockade too close to run in, and was compelled to cruise off and on, waiting for a change in her favor. While thus lazily reconnoitring, she spoke a vessel from Valparaiso, which reported a famine there. Mr. Hemenway at once decided to try Valparaiso. The Captain hesitated; he said his vessel was not adapted to double Cape Horn in the dead of winter; but young Hemenway assumed the entire responsibility, and the Captain yielded. She had a favorable slant round the Horn, and reached Valparaiso in safety, where her cargo was sold at high prices. The Chilians were so grateful for the timely relief that they loaded the bark as deep as she could safely swim with copper ore, and all concerned in the venture made a fortune. Later, Mr. Hemenway opened a trade with Valparaiso in copper, wool, nitrate, etc., by which he became one of the richest men in Boston.