Johnson and Edmund Jones, with parties of seamen, jumped on board with
powder-cans and fuzes; but, as they were looking for the chains, it
was found that they were secured at the bows, by lashing or otherwise,
to the hulk's anchor chain, the end of the latter being led in through
the hawse-pipe, around the windlass and bitted. When its windings had
been followed up and understood, Captain Caldwell was told that the
chain could be slipped. He then contemplated firing the hulk, but
while the materials for doing so were sought for, the chain was
slipped without orders. The vessels went adrift, and, as the Itasca's
helm was to port and the engines going ahead, they turned inshore and
grounded hard and fast a short distance below, within easy range of
both forts.

A boat was at once sent to the Pinola, which was steaming up to try
again, and she came to her consort's assistance. Two lines were
successfully run to the Itasca, but she had grounded so hard that both
parted, though the second was an 11-inch hawser. The Pinola now
drifted so far down, and was so long in returning, that the Itasca
thought herself deserted; and the executive officer, Lieutenant George
B. Bacon, was despatched to the Hartford for a more powerful vessel.
The hour for the moon to rise was also fast approaching and the fate
of the Itasca seemed very doubtful.

The Pinola, however, came back, having in her absence broken out a
13-inch hawser, the end of which was passed to the grounded vessel.
The third trial was happy and the Pinola dragged the Itasca off, at
the same time swinging her head up the river. Lieutenant Caldwell, who
was on the bridge, when he saw his ship afloat, instead of returning
at once, steadied her head up stream and went ahead fast with the
engines. The Itasca moved on, not indeed swiftly, but firmly toward
and above the line of hulks, hugging the eastern bank. When well above
Caldwell gave the order, "Starboard;" the little vessel whirled
quickly round and steered straight for the chains. Carrying the full
force of the current with her and going at the top of her own speed,
she passed between the third hulk, which the Pinola had grappled, and
the fourth. As her stem met the chain she slid bodily up, rising three
or four feet from the water, and dragging down the anchors of the
hulks on either side; then the chains snapped, the Itasca went
through, and the channel of the river was free.

The following morning the hulks were foun