Captain Trowbridge (since promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment) had charge of the famous "Planter," brought away from the Rebels by Robert Small; she carried a ten-pound Parrott gun, and two howitzers.

The John Adams was our main reliance.
She was an old East Boston ferry-boat, a "double-ender," admirable for river-work, but unfit for sea-service.

She drew seven feet of water; the Planter drew only four; but the latter was very slow, and being obliged to go to St.Simon's by an inner passage, would delay us from the beginning.

She delayed us so much, before the end, that we virtually parted company, and her career was almost entirely separated from our own.
From boyhood I have had a fancy for boats, and have seldom been without a share, usually more or less fractional, in a rather indeterminate number of punts and wherries.

But when, for the first time, I found myself at sea as Commodore of a fleet of armed steamers,--for even the Ben De Ford boasted a six-pounder or so,--it seemed rather an unexpected promotion.