Captain Faucon, Who Took Out The Alert, And Brought Home The
Pilgrim, Spent Many Years In Command Of Vessels In
The Indian and
Chinese seas, and was in our volunteer navy during the late war,
commanding several large vessels in
Succession, on the blockade
of the Carolinas, with the rank of lieutenant. He has now given
up the sea, but still keeps it under his eye, from the piazza of
his house on the most beautiful hill in the environs of Boston.
I have the pleasure of meeting him often. Once, in speaking of
the Alert's crew, in a company of gentlemen, I heard him say that
that crew was exceptional: that he had passed all his life at sea,
but whether before the mast or abaft, whether officer or master,
he had never met such a crew, and never should expect to; and that
the two officers of the Alert, long ago shipmasters, agreed with
him that, for intelligence, knowledge of duty and willingness to
perform it, pride in the ship, her appearance and sailing, and in
absolute reliableness, they never had seen their equal. Especially he
spoke of his favorite seaman, French John. John, after a few more
years at sea, became a boatman, and kept his neat boat at the end of
Granite Wharf, and was ready to take all, but delighted to take any
of us of the old Alert's crew, to sail down the harbor. One day
Captain Faucon went to the end of the wharf to board a vessel in
the stream, and hailed for John.
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