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Early Days on the Lakes An Interesting Letter from Capt. R. D. Swain Who Recalls Freight Rates That Make the Mouth Water urer of the Lake Carriers' Asso- ciation, received a short time ago a picture of the schooner A. E. Hart trom .Capt. R. D: Swain, of Kansas City, Mo. Captain Swain, who is now connected with the live stock industry in Kansas City, sent Ce George P. McKay, treas- more frames amidship, making her 10 feet longer than the others (the schoon- ers Dauntless and Imperial, and the bark Invincible). This latter vessel carried a royal, top-mast and top-gallant studding sails, and, under the command of Capt. Joseph Kendrick, had the repu- Capt. Wm. Buffington, the bark Major Anderson, Capt. John W. Moore, and the Hart, arrived in Chicago within an hour of each other. The wind had been Sb. to .S. W. ier. nearly a-week. Every grain-carrying vessel had gotten out of Chicago and there had been no arrivals for several a number. of these pictures to old friends to commem- orate his seventieth birthday on Aug. 13. Capt. Swain was} _ long identified with| _ the lakes. He began| _ sailing in the spring| _ of 1860, when he]. was not quite 16] years old and his} first captaincy was | ~ the schooner A Buckingham in 1865 Capt. Swain comes from a generation of | sailors. On his} father's side he traces | his ancestry back to - John Swain and John § Gardiner, two of the nine men who bought Nantucket Island from an Indian in 1630, for a consideration of 30 pounds sterling and two felt hats--one for his squaw and one for himself. The family showed sailors in each generation from that period. Capt. Swain's mother, Lucina Drake, traces her ancestry back to Sir Francis Drake, the distinguished pirate who was subsequently commis- sioned admiral by Queen Elizabeth in 1587, and the Drakes show up on the quarter deck at intervals ever since. THe Marine Review wrote to Capt. Swain for some of his recollections and received the following interesting letter from him: "I have for acknowledgement your valued favor of the 24th inst. and am mailing you under separate cover a pic- ture of the schooner A. E. Hart. It is from a number I had struck off from a large one of her to send to a few of my old associates, believing that pleas- ant memories would thereby be revived of by-gone days and conditions. Ex- cept that her mainmast has a little too much rake it is a very good representa- tion of her. "She was one of four built at Buffalo from the same molds (about 1856) by Frederick Jones. The Hart had five - SCHOONER A. E. HART tation amongst the forecastle sailors of being "the wild boat of the lakes.' In a measure this reputation may have been well-founded, and I well remember that Capt. Kendrick, in giving me some advice as a youngster at the time I received my first command, among other things, said: 'Never favor the watch below when it can be used to advantage on deck; in fact one passage for a sailor is generally enough, as after that they become too well acquainted.' The In- vincible was generally at the head of the procession, and, with the wind free and plenty of it, she was what her name indicates. "The Hart went ashore on Presque Isle, Lake Huron,. during the fall of 1868 and was a total logs. She was sailed that season by Capt. Huntoon. Up to that time she had been a very lucky vessel. The first year I sailed her (1866) was a record for freight. The maximum rate was 16 cents per bushel on wheat Chicago to Buffalo ' $6.00 per ton on ore, Marquette to Lake Erie ports, and $6.00 per m on lumber frem the head of Lake Michigan | to Chicago. About the first of November that same year the schooner Goshawk, days, hence there was strong bidding amongst the shippers. ° As a result the three of us got 16 cents: per bushel on wheat to Buffalo. We had coal up at $2.50 per ton. The Hart's up-cargo was 600 tons, and she {took back 21,000 | bushels of wheat. |The trip before this _|went light to Trav- _jerse' Bay, I there | loaded 310,000 feet |}of lumber for Chi- cago at $6.00 per m, and received 10 cents per bushel on wheat back to Buffalo. Our net earnings for the season's business lacked very little of covering the pur- chase price of the schooner, the Janu- ary previous. ; "Referring to the $6.00 per m on lumber from Traverse Bay to Chicago, reminds me of the fall of 1865, when the reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States came to an end Jan. 1, 1866. The lumber dealers were then anxious to import all the lumber possible from Canada before the expira- tion of the treaty. I arrived in Buf- falo from Chicago the last of Novem- ber with the schooner A. Buckingham. The lumbermen had their agents out who boarded us as we struck the dock. Bidding was quite brisk and I finally chartered for a cargo of lumber from Port Stanley, Canada, to Cleveland, at $6.00 per m, thus making a very good freight to wind up the season--espec- ially so as I had just delivered a cargo of wheat at 12 cents per bushel. "By way of comparison with present times: the topsail schooner Flight, (Capt. George Young) in 1862, had a season contract from Marquette to Cleveland on iron ore at $3.25 to $3.50 Per ton. Her capacity was about 350 tons. I was second mate of her that season. We made 13 round trips, thus