. The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897. at these sloopswere single-masted vessels, as was the one inthe Providence affair. They were in formand rig very much like the one-masted ves-sels employed at the time of this writing(1897) in carrying brick from the yards on theHudson River to New York City, but theywere not nearly as large as the brick-carriers,though they probably stood as high out ofwater, if not higher. A sloop of war wasa very different vessel, as will appear furtheron. Captain Moore saw the sloop coming fromafar, and realized that the crowd upon he
. The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897. at these sloopswere single-masted vessels, as was the one inthe Providence affair. They were in formand rig very much like the one-masted ves-sels employed at the time of this writing(1897) in carrying brick from the yards on theHudson River to New York City, but theywere not nearly as large as the brick-carriers,though they probably stood as high out ofwater, if not higher. A sloop of war wasa very different vessel, as will appear furtheron. Captain Moore saw the sloop coming fromafar, and realized that the crowd upon herdeck meant trouble for him. So, being stillanxious to avoid a conflict (just why he wasanxious does not appear), he up anchor andonce more ran away. But llick was againsthim—perhaps his flustrated state of mindbrought him ill-luck. At any rate, althoughthe wind was in the northwest and he wasbound south, he got up his rnainsail with theboom to starboard, and soon found himselfobliged to jibe it over to port. With a freshbreeze that was a task needing care, and yet,. £. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 21 when he came to swing the boom across, helet it go on the run, and it brought up againstthe backstays with such a shock that it wasbroken short off in the wake 6f the rigging. Rendered desperate by this accident. Cap-tain Moore now turned to a merchantschooner that he saw at anchor not faraway, and bringing to alongside of her, herobbed her of her boom to replace his ownand again headed for the open sea, and then,to still further aid his flight, cut adrift everyone of his boats. But it was all In vain, for the sloop wasmuch the swifter vessel, and Captain Moorewas at last compelled to fight. The Margarctta was armed with four six-pounders and twenty swivels^short and thickguns firing a one-pound ball, and mounted onswivels placed on the vessels rail. It was anarmament that should have been more thansufficient to repel the Machias men armedwith pitchforks and axes. Moreover, the crew
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