Tuesday Oct. 6 1863 The USS Cayuga, on blockade duty off the Calcasieu River in Louisiana had a busy day today. First prey was the steamer Pushmahata. When Lt. Commander Dana ordered her to heave to, she attempted to flee instead, and Dana chased her till she ran up on shore. The crew fled after setting her afire. When a party from Cayuga went aboard they put out the fire and started inspecting the cargo, which consisted of rum, red wine and gunpowder. A keg of the latter turned out to have a burning fuse set in it, which Ordinary Seaman Thomas Morton yanked out and threw overboard, along with the keg. After relieving the Pushmahata of the liquid part of her cargo the rest of the powder was used to blow the ship up. Another catch, a schooner, was also chased ashore but her crew succeeded in destroying her before Dana’s men could capture her
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 20:43:19 +0000
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