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Updated: June 15, 2025
The cry of a leadsman forward was almost constant. Once we tied up against the western bank for nearly an hour to remove a bit of driftwood from the wheel, and I heard voices speaking above on the upper deck as though passengers were grouped along the rail. I obtained no glimpse of these, however, although one of the negroes informed me that there were several army officers on board.
He was still willing to believe that he had not overstepped his orders. "And a quarter three!" cried the leadsman. "Make the course north-west, Mr. Flint," said Christy, following the sailing directions with a proper allowance for the tide. "No more sounding; send the man below. We shall have from three to seven fathoms of water till we have passed the fort."
It was half-past eleven, and the Teaser appeared, as well as he could calculate it, with the necessary allowances, to have made at least sixteen knots on the run from the sound channel. "And a quarter five!" cried the leadsman of the land side.
The respectful and sensible speeches which the old professors had been making all the afternoon in honour of the explorers had come to an end, and the procession of the students had started. The leadsman and his sweetheart were sitting on a balcony in the company of the other great men.
It was a still, black night, and the Adventurer made extremely slow progress, a leadsman at the bow calling off the depth of water, and a huge light, rather ingeniously arranged, casting a finger of radiance along the ghostly shore line.
He was charged with the leadsman, so to speak, and therefore, as he stepped out into the street he at once began to shout and boast. But this time luck was against him. A policeman ordered him to be quiet. The fool said something funny, imitating the leadsman's provincial accent. But the policeman, who happened to be a native of the same province, was annoyed and wanted to arrest the fool.
Towards the end of the evening the leadsman had conquered himself, admitted his faults, and resolved to turn over a new leaf. As he was passing a group of people he heard a voice behind a hedge saying: "It's extraordinary, how the leadsman has improved. He's really quite a delightful fellow!"
The leadsman swung out the sounder as the vessel slackened down with a yell from the escape-valve that drowned all other sounds with its deafening clamour. "By the deep nine!" cried a bass voice. The bell in the engine-room signaled the skipper's order, and the ship felt her way once more.
There was nothing especially perilous in the expedition to be sent out; and it was the policy of Christy to keep the steamer out of sight of the fort, and of those in the immediate vicinity of it. After the Bronx had been on her course about two hours, and four bells had just struck, the leadsman reported two fathoms. A little later eleven feet was the depth.
The commander had ascertained the range of the twenty-four pounder barbette guns of the fort, and made his calculations accordingly. He could batter down the masonry of the works at his leisure, if he chose to waste his time and ammunition in that way; but the Confederates proposed to abandon the fort, and it would not pay to destroy it. "Fourteen and a half feet!" shouted the leadsman.
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