t with Thomas Quigley for captain. Quigley
took the little schooner down the Jersey coast and stayed there. He
never put out to sea at all. He rode comfortably at anchor near shore
and when he ran out of rum put in and got more. After a while the
mates and crew sent in a round robin to Captain Randall telling him
the story. The _Lively_ was swiftly called in and--what Captain Tom
did to Quigley history does not state!
The jolly piratical seaman did finely and flourished, green-bay like,
in the sight of men. He was not without honours either. When
Washington was rowed from Elizabethtown Point to the first
inauguration, his barge was manned by a crew of thirteen ships'
captains, and he who had the signal distinction of being coxswain of
that historic boat's company, was Cap'n Tom!
Indeed there seems to be abundant proof that the Captain engineered
the whole proceeding. It is certain that it was he who presented the
"Presidential barge" to Washington for his use during his stay in New
York, and he who selected that unusual crew,--practically every noted
shipmaster then in port. On the President's final departure for Mount
Vernon, he again used the barge, putting out from the foot of
Whitehall and when he reached Elizabethtown, he very courteously
returned it as a gift to Captain Randall, and wrote him a letter of
warm thanks.
It is believed that Captain Thomas came from Scotland some time in the
early part of the eighteenth century, but we know nothing of his
antecedents and not much of his private life. He married in America,
but we do not know the name of his wife. We do know that in 1775 his
son, Robert Richard, was a youth of nineteen and a student at
Columbia. This was the same year that the old Captain was serving on
important committees and playing a conspicuous part in public affairs.
Oh, yes! he was a most eminent citizen, and no one thought a whit the
worse of him for what he called his "honest privateering." He was a
member of the Legislature in 1784 and voted in favour of bringing in
tea free--when it was carried by American ships!
And I picture Cap'n Tom as a stout and hearty rogue, with an open hand
and heart and a certain cheery fashion of plying his shady calling,
rather endearing than otherwise (I have no notion of his real looks
nor qualities, but one's imagination must have its fling on
occasion!). After all, there is not such a vast difference between the
manner of Sir. Peter Warren's gains and
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