Title: The Great War Syndicate
Author: Frank Stockton
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
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