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TAE MarRINeE REVIEW 23 was on the weather side, sprang to the wheelsman and grasp- ing him by the slack of his pantaloons yelled: "Hang on to that wheel, man, or I'll drop you overboard." As the professor was not anxious to meet Davy Jones just then, and knowing that he would die sure if he relaxed his grip, he hung on with his eyebrows until the ship paid off and the danger was averted, when Captain John let go of the slack and walked on. On another occasion, when acting as second mate under the "Storm King," as the boys nicknamed Captain John, it occurred to Mate Barrett that the brig was carrying alto- gether too much canvas for. the amount of wird in sight. So he went in to see the skipper, who had just turned in for a spell of sleep. "Take in sail; why, I should say not," returned Captain John; "she's doing beautifully, sir, beautifully." Half an hour later away flew the royal and to'gallants'l, together with the main gaff-tops'l. Back to Captain John went the mate to report. "No need to take sail now, sit; canvas _is blown clean out of the bolts and the topmast has gone by the board." "Very well, send up another spar,' answered the imper- turbable captain, as he rolled over for another snooze. Captain John fed his sailors well and treated them well, even if he did work them pretty hard. In the spring when navigation opened, he always had a-score of mothers in his office begging him to ship Tom or Jack or Dick, boys, perhaps, with tough reputations ashore, but who were the best of sailors when away from land influences. The best navigator on the lakes, it was considered a special privilege to sail with Captain John, and his men would have gone through fire and water to serve him. Brave as a lion, he was absolutely with- out a fear, seeming 1o court danger for the excitement it lent. The Pottawattamie Indians used to call him '"Min-in-gun," or "Hell-cat," because of his utter recklessness in the face of imminent peril. ' It was the brigantine Minnesota, built in Chicago and com- manded by a Chicago boy, Captain John Prindiville, that was the first American vessel to sail up the St. Lawrence river. The boat was chartered by the Montreal Mining Co. in 1850 to take on a cargo of copper at the Bruce mines in Georgia 'Bay and clear for Swansea, Wales. Owing to the stupidity of the. pilot, however, the, Minnesota. was run on the. rocks in going through Lachine canal, necessitating the unloading of her cargo for repairs. When rendered seaworthy the sea- son was so_far advanced that the underwriters refused to in- sure, so the vessel laid up for the winter, and in the spring Captain John took her back to the lake trade. It was Captain John again who, in 1873 loaded the Pamlico with a full cargo of corn and made the first through charter from Chicago to Liverpool. From 1855 to 1865, Captain John and -his brother Redmond owned and operated the only line of tugs on the Chicago river. During these years the Captain's record for bravery in saving lives at the risk of his own is a grand one. People living in Chicago at that time will never forget the awful storm of Nov. 17, 1857, when a dozen vessels were sacrificed. But for the heroic efforts of Captain John and his gallant crew that manned the tug McQueen the number lost would have been more than trebled." When the crew ofthe Harriet Ross, with frozen hands and feet, were lying off the Chicago harbor utterly unable to avert their impending doom it was Captain John who breasted the storm and brought them to shore in safety, returning later to relieve the distress of the sailors aboard the Di Vernon, then pounding on the piers two miles south of the river entrance. Off Douglass Monument the steamer Cape Horn was grounded, with the waves angrily threatening to dash her to pieces and the half-frozen crew vainly trying to escape the biting billows in the rigging. Steaming out for the third time, utterly ignoring the pleadings of his friends to think of his own safety, Captain John steered boldly for the Di Vernon, approaching her with head on, and by stationing a man in the bows managed to pick off the shipwrecked sailors one by one until the entire crew was rescued. It was a heroic act, and at the close of that eventful day Stephen A. Douglass, Charlie Wilson of the Journal, and a dozen other prominent citizens of Chicago met at the Tremont House, whither Captain John had been inveigled, and after thanking him for his gallantry, Senator Douglass picked up a purse of gold containing $700 and handed it to a brave sailor, remarking as he did so: "Capt. Prindiville, please accept this purse as a small token of the honor and esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens of Chicago, who, believe me, fully appreciate the gallant deeds you have performed today in the interests of humanity." In his modest, diffident way, Captain John thanked the sena- tor for the sentiments expressed, but positively declined to accept the money. "I cannot be paid,' said the noble fellow, "for saving lives. That I account a special privilege, and one of which I am always glad to avail myself whenever the opportunity presents. There lies in a jeweler's show window around the corner," he continued, "a. gold watch and chain that was offered me on an occasion similar to this a year ago. I have asked the good people to sell it and turn over the proceeds to the widows and orphans of those sailors who lost their lives during that storm. Tf my kind friends here will permit, I should like to see this purse of gold . distributed among the -families of the frozen crew of the Fly- ing Cloud, all of whom perished in the storm of last night and today." Tt was not alone hy steaming out in the teeth of a gale with his tug that Captain John showed his nerve and bravery. From 1840 to 1850 many a hard pull across the angry billows in a common yawl boat has the captain made to rescue perish- ing sailors. When the schooner Indiana went ashore on the beach early in the 'gos it was he who led a rescuing party through the surging breakers toward the ill-fated schooner, from which Capt. E. T. Dow and wife, together with all the crew, were brought here in safety. In the spring of 1843, when the ice was ten inches thick on the river; a party of seven young men that had pulled out in the lake to the schooner Maumee were pre¢ipitated into the icy waters by the capsizing of their boat, and, although they managed to clutch the keel, all stood a fair chance of being frozen to death when Captain John and Captain Shelby jumped into a small yawl boat and out through the treacherous ice drifts rowed toward the struggling mortals, all of whom were rescued from the:r perilous position and brought safely to shore, . To commemorate this brave act a special meeting was held in the old Baptist church that stood on La Salle street at the south end of the lot now occupied by the Chamber of Commerce Building, at which Elder Hinton, in the presence of an audience that filled every corner of the church, preached a powerful sermon eulogizing the gallantry of the rescuers and taking occasion also to graphically moralize on the muta- bility of life and the necessity of being ready at all times to meet the call. His text was: "And he said into the waves, 'peace be still,' and they obeved him." The narrowest call Captain John ever had was in August, 1862, when the boiler of the tug Union exploded, instantly killing Capt. Baily, Capt. Boyd, then harbor master, and the fireman of the boat. Captain John had relinquished the wheel to Capt. Dailey two minutes before the boiler burst. He had stepped out of the pilot house and walked aft to hail the tug Julian Rumsey when he heard a hissing noise, saw a pile of debris shoot up in the air, and realized instantly what had taken place. Although the tug began settling at once the captain stayed aboard until the very last, intent on saving the scalded crew, and not until all were transferred to the Rumsey would he suffer himself to be picked up, the tug