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tain direction, directly opposite to that in which he had been trying to movethe boat, she could be got off. He replied, very promptly, “ Mr. Eads, if youwill undertake to get her off, I shall be very willing to place the entire crewunder your direction.” I at once accepted the offer; and Lieutenant Bishopwas called up and instructed to obey my directions. Several very large haw-sers had been put on board of the boat for the fleet at Cairo . One of the larg-est was got out and secured to a largetree on the shore, and as heavy a strainwas put upon it as the cable would belikely to bear. As the water was stillfalling, I ordered out a second one, anda third, and a fourth, until five orsix eleven-inch hawsers were heavilystrained in the effort to drag the broad-bottomed vessel off the bar. There werethree steam capstans on the bow of thevessel, and these were used in tighten-ing the strain by luffs upon the hawsers.
One of the hawsers was led through asnatch-block fastened by a large chainto a ring-bolt in the side of the vessel.
I was on the upper deck of the vesselnear Captain Winslow when the chainwhich held this block broke. It wasmade of iron one and one-eighth inchesin diameter, and the link separated intothree pieces. The largest, being one-halfof the link, was found on the shore at adistance of at least five hundred feet.
Half of the remainder struck the ironplating on the bow of the boat, making an indentation half the thicknessof one’s finger in depth. The third piece struck Captain Winslow on thefleshy part of the arm, cutting through his coat and the muscles of hisarm. The wound was a very painful one, but he bore it as might be expected.The iron had probably cut an inch and a half into the arm between theshoulder and the elbow. In the course of the day the Benton was floated,and proceeded on her voyage down the river without further delay. CaptainWinslow soon after departed for his home on leave of absence. On his recov-ery he was placed in command of the Kearsarge, and to that accident heowed, perhaps, the fame of being the captor of the Alabama .
When the Benton arrived at Cairo she was visited by all the officers of thearmy and navy stationed there, and was taken, on that or the following day,on a trial trip a few miles down the river. The Essex, in command of CaptainWilliam D. Porter, was lying four or five miles below the mouth of the Ohio onthe Kentucky shore. As the Benton passed up, on her return from this littleexpedition, Captain Porter offered his congratulations to Foote on the apparentexcellence of the boat. “ Yes,” replied Foote, “ but she is almost too slow.”
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