THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE.
In the spring of a certain year, not far from the close of the nineteenth
century, when the political relations between the United States and Great
Britain became so strained that careful observers on both sides of the
Atlantic were forced to the belief that a serious break in these relations
might be looked for at any time, the fishing schooner Eliza Drum sailed
from a port in Maine for the banks of Newfoundland. It was in this year
that a new system of protection for American fishing vessels had been
adopted in Washington. Every fleet of these vessels was accompanied by
one or more United States cruisers, which remained on the fishing grounds,
not only for the purpose of warning American craft who might approach
too near the three-mile limit, but also to overlook the action of the British
naval vessels on the coast, and to interfere, at least by protest, with such
seizures of American fishing boats as might appear to be unjust. In the
opinion of all persons of sober judgment, there was nothing in the
condition of affairs at this time so dangerous to the peace of the two
countries as the presence of these American cruisers in the fishing waters.
The Eliza Drum was late in her arrival on the fishing grounds, and having,
under orders from Washington, reported to the commander of the
Lennehaha, the United States vessel in charge at that place, her captain
and crew went vigorously to work to make up for lost time. They worked
so vigorously, and with eyes so single to the catching of fish, that on the
morning of the day after their arrival, they were hauling up cod at a point
which, according to the nationality of the calculator, might be two and
three- quarters or three and one-quarter miles from the Canadian coast. In
consequence of this inattention to the apparent extent of the marine mile,
the Eliza Drum, a little before noon, was overhauled and seized by the
British cruiser, Dog Star. A few miles away the Lennehaha had perceived
the dangerous position of the Eliza Drum,