work required of the crew was to scrub decks before
breakfast and a half-hour's drilling at the broadside guns. Arrants and
myself would take a boat and crew and go fishing every pleasant day.
Taking the sounding lead with us, we were soon able to find good fishing
grounds. The bottom of the lead has a large hole that is filled with
hard tallow---"arming the lead." When the lead strikes the bottom it
will bring up anything that it comes in contact with, be it sand, mud,
or gravel, and, if rocks, the tallow will bear the impression. By that
means, it can be known to a certainty what the bottom is composed of in
that locality. For fishing, we would sound until we found a bank
composed of shells and gravel, and there we were sure of catching all
the fish we wanted.

Now, for our captain's mistake No. 2. He had gotten the idea into his
head that we were not close enough to the land. The weather had been
quite pleasant and the sea smooth. An experienced seaman has no use for
land unless it is in a secure harbour, and, much to our surprise, the
captain ordered the sails loosened and the anchor weighed, and we stood
in for the shore. The leadsman was continually taking soundings and,
when in three fathoms, the brig was brought head to wind and the anchor
let go. There we were in eighteen feet of water, the brig's draft being
twelve feet. This left just six feet of water between our keel and a
nice hard sandy bottom. The captain was well satisfied with the vessel's
position, as he remarked that no blockade-runner could now pass without
being seen. A few nights afterward his mind underwent a mighty sudden
change, when a heavy gale came on from the eastward about midnight, and
the waves got high and every few minutes the sea would lift us up, then
let us down with a heavy thud on that "nice sandy bottom." The fact was
we were anchored in the breakers. The top-sails were reefed and set,
then the anchor was weighed, the foresail was braced sharp up and back,
so as to bring the vessel's head to the southward, but it was of no use;
the brig would not swing around in the breakers but only drift astern
towards the beach. The anchor was again let go, then a rope was put into
the hawse-hole, the other end outside the port and fastened on the
quarter-deck. The cable was unshackled at the fifteen fathoms shackle,
the rope fastened to it, and the chain let run out of the hawse-hole. As
the brig drifted astern the rope fastened on the quarter