After my flour was disposed of I purchased a cargo of boards to carry to Providence, Rhode Island. I loaded the sloop, intending to be ready to sail in the morning, but the tide receding during the night, the Rover was left aground at the Long Wharf. When I awoke in the morning I found my vessel had fallen over on her side, and had five feet of water in her hold. I procured a caulker, who, with myself and crew, went into the mud and water and commenced stopping the leaks, while the water was running out from her bottom from almost every seam. We caulked the largest with table knives, wooden wedges, &c. We then took four pounds of candles and a quantity of wood ashes and made a kind of putty, with which we stopped the remainder. In the mean time my two seamen were arrested for stealing and sent to jail. I hired a number of men and bailed and pumped out the water. I then shipped a new crew and proceeded to Providence. On my arrival there I was cordially greeted by the inhabitants, and disposed of my cargo very advantageously. In consequence of my good fortune a number of Quaker, and other persons, who were strangers to me, urged me to take charge of a good brig; supposing that I could protect their property. I declined taking another vessel, as my passport would not protect me with any other than the one I had. I, however, did not state to them the reason.
The rage for shipping in the Rover was so great that I could get about five times more for freightage than I could in time of peace. I took on board 31 pipes of brandy, 20 hogsheads of sugar, and 100 ceroons of tallow, and sailed for New-York. When I arrived at Hell Gate and was attempting to pass it, the wind being light, the sloop drifted upon the rock called the Hog's-back, and the tide falling, her bottom was left half out of water. At about 11 o'clock at night I made out to remove her off from the rocks, having four feet of water in her hold. She drifted back out of the Gate, when I succeeded in hauling her on shore and made her fast to the rocks. As it was dark and rainy, we could not tell at the time where we were. On groping my way into the cabin I found the water six inches deep on the cabin floor. I then lay down with clothes wet through to my skin. At daylight I found the Rover, the tide having left her, some rods high and dry upon the rocks, and the water running from most of her seams. I called all hands and went to caulking with table knives, &c. We then applied a few pounds of putty and ashes to the seams. At high water she again floated. After hiring four negroes to go with us to New-York to assist in pumping and bailing, we proceeded on our course.
When we got to the city we hauled her into Coenties Slip, where the bottom is soft and muddy. The mud having filled up her seams in a few hours, she ceased leaking, and passed for a tight craft. I notified my consignees of our arrival and then landed the cargo. Five hogsheads of sugar were damaged in consequence of the leaking of my vessel. The consignees paid me for all the freight, and threw the loss of the damaged sugar upon the underwriters in Providence, who insured a considerable amount in the cargo.
As I had now been some time absent from my family, who resided in Catskill, I concluded to make them a visit. I agreed with my partners in the sloop to sell her at auction during my absence. The Rover was visited by multitudes of people, who pronounced her the most lucky vessel in the harbor. Many of them, I suppose, thought her to be a phantom ship. For myself, I felt well satisfied, as I had over two hundred dollars per month during the three months I sailed her, on a capital of one hundred and twenty-five dollars.
The fame of the Rover was so great that she sold for $480. The purchaser took her up the Sound to Long Island, and laid her on shore at high water. He then loaded her with wood by driving alongside at low water. But when the tide rose he found her sides broken in and her hold filled with water. My hand trembles while I write of the untimely end of the charming sloop Rover.
CHAPTER II.
Sloop New-York.
About the first of November, 1813, having added a little to my small capital by my late adventure in the Rover, and feeling eager to add more, again trusting to the smiles of fickle fortune, I purchased a small sloop called the New-York, of 28 tons burden. Soon after I sold one-fourth of her to Messrs. T. B. & A. Cook, merchants in Catskill, and one-half of her to two merchants in the city of New-York. They considered it a kind of lottery adventure. One of the new owners in New-York had correspondents in Norfolk, Virginia, who informed us of the high prices of Northern produce in that city, and the situation of the English squadron in Lynhaven Bay, and advised us to procure a small vessel of light draught of water, and that by sailing in over a shoal called the Horse-shoe, in a dark night, we might avoid coming in contact with the enemy's fleet.
The American coast was closely blockaded by the English vessels, but heavy gales of wind frequently drove them off the coast for a short time, which offered some chance of making passages by keeping near the land.