31/376 To screen themselves they charged their captain with the crime. In view of this the writer of the ballad addressed the following letter to the historian:-- OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, 5 mo. 18, 1880. I have read it with great interest and think good use has been made of the abundant material. No town in Essex County has a record more honorable than Marblehead; no one has done more to develop the industrial interests of our New England seaboard, and certainly none have given such evidence of self-sacrificing patriotism. |