In the spring of a certain year, not far from the close of thenineteenth century, when the political relations between the UnitedStates and Great Britain became so strained that careful observers onboth sides of the Atlantic were forced to the belief that a seriousbreak in these relations might be looked for at any time, the fishingschooner Eliza Drum sailed from a port in Maine for the banks ofNewfoundland.
It was in this year that a new system of protection for Americanfishing vessels had been adopted in Washington. Every fleet of thesevessels was accompanied by one or more United States cruisers, whichremained on the fishing grounds, not only for the purpose of warningAmerican craft who might approach too near the three-mile limit, butalso to overlook the action of the British naval vessels on the coast,and to interfere, at least by protest, with such seizures of Americanfishing boats as might appear to be unjust. In the opinion of allpersons of sober judgment, there was nothing in the condition ofaffairs at this time so dangerous to the peace of the two countries asthe presence of these American cruisers in the fishing waters.
The Eliza Drum was late in her arrival on the fishing grounds, andhaving, under orders from Washington, reported to the commander of theLennehaha, the United States vessel in charge at that place, hercaptain and crew went vigorously to work to make up for lost time.They worked so vigorously, and with eyes so single to the catching offish, that on the morning of the day after their arrival, they werehauling up cod at a point which, according to the nationality of thecalculator, might be two and three-quarters or three and one-quartermiles from the Canadian coast.
In consequence of this inattention to the apparent extent of the marinemile, the Eliza Drum, a little before noon, was overhauled and seizedby the British cruiser, Dog Star. A few miles away the Lennehaha hadperceived the dangerous position of the Eliza Drum, and had startedtoward her to warn her to take a less doubtful position. But beforeshe arrived the capture had taken place. When he reached the spotwhere the Eliza Drum had been fishing, the commander of the Lennehahamade an observation of the distance from the shore, and calculated itto be more than three miles. When he sent an officer in a boat to theDog Star to state the result of his computations, the captain of theBritish vessel replied that he was satisfied the distance was less thanthree miles, and that he was now about to take the Eliza Drum into port.
On receiving this information, the commander of the Lennehaha steamedcloser to the Dog Star, and informed her captain, by means of aspeaking-trumpet, that if he took the Eliza Drum into a Canadian port,he would first have to sail over his ship. To this the captain of theDog Star replied that he did not in the least object to sail over theLennehaha, and proceeded to put a prize crew on board the fishingvessel.
At this juncture the captain of the Eliza Drum ran up a large Americanflag; in five minutes afterward the captain of the prize crew hauled itdown; in less than ten m