aptain of the _Mary Powel_, bound up, reported catching her abreast of
Yonkers. He had whistled as he passed, and though no one was in sight,
the salute was politely answered. At some time during the night,
residents of Sing Sing were wakened by a sound of steam blowing off
somewhere on the river; and in the morning a couple of fishermen, going
out to their pond-nets in the early dawn, found the police boat
grounded on the shoals. On boarding her they had released a pinioned,
gagged, and hungry captain in the pilot-house, and an engineer,
fireman, and two deck-hands, similarly limited, in the lamp-room.
Hearing noises from below, they pried open the nailed doors of the
dining-room staircase, and liberated a purple-faced sergeant and eight
furious officers, who chased their deliverers into their skiff, and
spoke sternly to the working-force.

Among the theories advanced was one, by the editor of a paper in a
small Lake Ontario town, to the effect that it made little difference
to an Oswego sailor whether he shipped as captain, mate, engineer,
sailor, or fireman, and that the officers of the New York Harbor Patrol
had only under-estimated the caliber of the men in their charge,
leaving them unguarded while they went to dinner. But his paper and
town were small and far away, he could not possibly know anything of
the subject, and his opinion obtained little credence.

Years later, however, he attended, as guest, a meeting and dinner of
the Shipmasters' and Pilots' Association of Cleveland, Ohio, when a
resolution was adopted to petition the city for a harbor police
service. Captain Monahan, Captain Helward, Captain Peck, and Captain
Cahill, having spoken and voted in the negative, left their seats on
the adoption of the proposition, reached a clear spot on the floor,
shook hands silently, and then, forming a ring, danced around in a
circle (the tails of their coats standing out in horizontal rigidity)
until reproved by the chair.

And the editor knew why.

THE BRAIN OF THE BATTLE-SHIP

Build an inverted Harvey-steel box about eight feet high, one hundred
and fifty feet long, half as wide, with walls of eighteen-inch
thickness, and a roof of three, and you have strong protection against
shot and shell. Build up from the ends of the box two steel barbettes
with revolving turrets as heavy as your side-walls; place in each a
pair of thirteen-inch rifles; flank these turrets with four others of
eight-inch wall, ea