Saxibroox the Wolf Player: Schooner Days CCCLIII (353)

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NONE of the schooner skippers was a plaster saint, but some were less sanctified and more plastered than others. Saxibroox, it appeared from the symposium of Capts. R. M. Boyce and Jas. McCannel, who were reminiscing about him recently, was in a class by himself, meriting a special halo.

Research fails to determine whether Saxibroox won his title by virtue of his sartorial embellishments or not. He was coeval with Drag-pants Slattery, and possibly excelled him in the freedom of the cut of his nether garments. Perhaps his praenomen should really be spelled Sacksy, yet as Saxy it has passed down into history.

Masters of sailing vessels on the lakes have not worn uniforms since the War of 1812, but Saxy's habiliments excelled most in their unconventionality, and might have been tailored in the last year of that regretted conflict. One boot laced with rope yarn and the other with leather, shapeless pants rolled high over the boot tops, collarless shirt, and his hair sticking out of the cracks in an old felt hat the shape of a bell, were his usual outfit.

So appareled he encountered spruce young Ted Anderson, smartest dresser in the new generation of skippers of big steel freighters; those who rule their roost from steam-heated bridges with the assistance of radio telephones. They were old shipmates, and Capt. Anderson invited him to inspect his quarters in his new command.

"Do you mean to say," demanded Saxy, as Capt. Anderson showed him his private bathroom, shining in nickel and enamel, "you use that thing every Saturday night?"

"I've a cold bath every morning when I turn out, and a hot one every night before I turn in," said Ted.

"Well," pondered Saxy, scoring a bullseye through the bathroom port-light as he shifted his quid, "either yours is a dam' dirty ship or you're a dam' dirty liar."

In Saxy's early days, after he had improved the Welland Canal with the Augusta's double topsails—she came out in '72—he attained command of the Sylvester Neelon, named after Sylvester Neelon, M.P. for Welland. This gentleman owned both the Augusta, the G. M. Neelon, and the Sylvester, which was another double-topsail-yarder. Saxy brought the Sylvester Neelon into Kingston harbor, loaded scuppers-to with wheat. He anchored off the Montreal Transportation Co. elevator, dropped his yawlboat, and sculled ashore to report, clear, and get his money to pay off his crew. On the way back he stopped in the old Rob Roy saloon, which stood at the head of one of-the slips, facing King street and backing on the water.

There was a tough gang of Portsmouth graduates and such gentry at this time, who used to haunt the waterfront and called themselves the Wolves. The Chief of the Pack went by the name of Goff. Some Wolf sniffed Saxy's tracks to the Rob Roy, and, knowing he was heeled to pay off, sent an inaudible howl out for the rest of the pack. Soon they sidled in, and before Saxy had finished his glass they jumped him and got him down to his knees. To make a safe job of frisking him one of them hove up the crockery spittoon, as big as a dishpan, and split it over Saxy's head.

That made Saxy real mad. With blood streaming down his face and neck he plunged to his feet, went through the back door without turning the knob, jumped into his yawlboat, and sculled out to the Sylvester Neelon. He ran to his stateroom, got his revolver, jumped into the yawlboat, and sculled back to the Rob Roy before the Wolves had settled with the bar-keep for the smashed cuspidor. When they saw him coming the whole pack rushed him. Saxy shot the Chief Wolf dead in his tracks. The rest ran.

The Kingston police had to arrest him, for there had been too big a row to ignore, and Saxy stayed in jail till Sylvester Neelon got in from St. Catharines with a bail bond. The charge was not murder but manslaughter. Released on his owner's recognizances Saxy sailed the Sylvester Neelon till the end of navigation and then stood his trial. The judge summed up to the effect that although the prisoner's plea of self defense might be somewhat open to question, as there was a short interval between the first assault and the second, in consideration of the fact that the prisoner had ridded society of a notorious desperado, his honor was giving the prisoner the benefit of the doubt and ordered his discharge.

"That," said Capt. Boyce, "is the story of the trial as I have it from a Kingston business man and from Saxy's second mate, who afterwards sailed the steamer Hennepin and the Topeka, out of Milwaukee.

"Saxy came over to Detroit about 1890 and went to work for Steve Grummond, owning the schooner A. Boody. He hit Stephen for some money the first thing. Grummond told him where to buy supplies and have them charged. 'But,' says Saxy, 'I might want to send a telegram.' 'Send it collect,' says the thrifty Steve."

The A. Boody looked as though she was run on those lines when this compiler saw her with a load of coal in Hamilton in 1892. She then hailed from Rochester. A hard looking packet she was, with sails as dingy as her cargo or her black and blistered sides. In 1894 Frank Jackman got her, changed her name to E. A. Fulton, after his wife, and dressed her like a lady in green and white, with shining new canvas.

"I met Saxy in Ashland with the Boody about '92," continued Capt.Boyce. "His foresail was split across the reefband, and the mainsail split from clew to earing. He had cut up some old tarpaulins to patch his sails. His running gear was a wreck. It happened I had rove off throat and peak halliards new that trip and had the old rope on hand, a whole coil, so I let him have that. After he got everything shipshape again he came over and thanked me and said,

"----------, ------- Boyce, I could cross the Western Ocean now!"

Sir,—Being a subscriber to Evening Telegram, and very interested in your weekly "Schooner Days," I am sending you a picture I found in my cellar since moving in. The picture you may have, I thought it a very fine drawing, and sorry that it is now damaged and water stained. The artist's name you will find at bottom of picture, could you tell us anything about him, or the steamer on the left of picture. Many thanks for all the articles you have written, "Schooner Days."

Sincerely yours,

HARRY E. WATSON.

HARRY(418 Wellesley street).

Thank you, Mr. Watson. The artist was C. I. Gibbons, fireman or engineer on the tug Frank Jackman. He did hundreds of these crayon pictures for masters and mates and sailors, in the course of forty years' work on the waterfront. The steamer on the left, which is not reproduced, in our illustration, was the old blockade-runner Chicora, still alive as the towbarge Warrenco.

Two of SAXIBROOX'S COMMANDS. The AUGUSTA and the SYLVESTER NEELON in the Welland Canal. Both had double topsail yards originally - Saxy's gift to the Welland Canal trade. In the picture the AUGUSTA, to the right, retains her square tophamper, although one topsail yard is missing, but the NEELON has reverted to the squaresail yard and raffee.

TOPSAIL SCHOONER "MICHIGAN," built in Detroit in 1864, a 200-footer for the trade of the Upper Lakes.