vessels of from thirty to sixty tons, known as
_bay-craft_. They are built so as to draw but little water, which is
their chief distinction from the _coasters_, which are fit for the open
sea. They will carry from twenty-five to fifty cords of wood, on which a
profit is expected of a dollar and upwards. They have usually about
three hands, the captain, or skipper, included. The men used to be
hired, when I entered the business, for eight or ten dollars the month,
but they now get nearly or quite twice as much. The captain usually
sails the vessel on shares (unless he is himself owner in whole, or in
part), victualling the vessel and hiring the men, and paying over to the
owner forty dollars out of every hundred. During the winter, from
December to March, the navigation is impeded by ice, and the bay-craft
seldom run. The men commonly spend this long vacation in visiting,
husking-frolics, rabbiting, and too often in taverns, to the exhaustion
of their purses, the impoverishment of their families, and the sacrifice
of their sobriety. Yet the watermen, if many of them are not able always
to resist the temptations held out to them, are in general an honest and
simple-hearted set, though with little education, and sometimes rather
rough in their manners. The extent of my education when I took to the
water--and in this respect I was not, perhaps, much inferior to the
generality of my brother watermen--was to read with no great fluency,
and to sign my name; nor did I ever learn much more than this till my
residence in Washington jail, to be related hereafter.

Having followed the wood business for two years, I aspired to something
a little higher, and obtained the command of a sloop engaged in the
coasting business, from Philadelphia southward and eastward. At this
time a sloop of sixty tons was considered a very respectable coaster.
The business is now mostly carried on by vessels of a larger class;
some of them, especially the regular lines of packets, being very
handsome and expensive. The terms on which these coasters were sailed
were very similar to those already stated in the case of the bay-craft.
The captain victualled the vessel, and paid the hands, and received for
his share half the net profits, after deducting the extra expenses of
loading and unloading. It was in this coasting business that the best
years of my life were spent, during which time I visited most of the
ports and rivers between Savannah southward, and