A calm set in in the afternoon, and we anchored off Point Lookout, at the mouth of the Potomac; but in the early hours of the morning, a breeze enabled us to get under way again, and meeting a steam-tug, the captain struck a bargain, and the little boat took us in tow and brought us by Fort McHenry into the harbor of Baltimore, just before the sun went down. As much as twenty miles below the city we met sailor boarding-house runners, cruising in their boats, but refused to allow them on board, and the refusal in each case called forth a volley of curses and the foulest language. When near the city a perfect swarm of boats had collected about the ship, hanging on to her channels or sailing along by her; and every little while some adventurous person would climb up the side and attempt to come on board, and if refused, as they always were, would use most insulting language. One fellow, who persistently took his stand in the main channels, and refused to get into his boat, was accosted by the captain with a belaying-pin; but he coolly drew out a revolver and threatened to blow the captain's brains out if he dared to touch him. The pilot cautioned the captain not to quarrel with these men, for they belonged to an organized gang of rowdies called "blood-tubs," and his life would not be safe on shore if he took any harsh measures with them.
I thought Capt. Streeter had attained to the highest perfection possible in the use of profane language, but these men quite equalled him, using epithets and comparisons, shewing that human ingenuity had been taxed to the utmost to invent new phrases and combinations of oaths.
After a good many threats of murdering the captain and officers when they caught them ashore, they one by one pulled in to the wharves and left the ship unmolested. The next day the "Dublin" hauled in to a wharf, at Fell's Point. The sailors had formed great plans for sueing the captain and second mate, and anticipated a sweet revenge in this way; but unfortunately they had arrived in a slave state, where a black man's testimony would not be taken in court, and where also a black sailor could not be discharged from his ship, unless some white man became his bondsman that he should leave the state within twenty-four hours. So there was nothing to do but postpone their revenge to the indefinite time, when they might catch them in New York or Boston.