Chapter seventeen
Hatteras Inlet, North CarolinaCaptain Carlisle crawled out of bed on the fourth day in port, dizzy from a wicked hangover. He managed to focus his blurry eyes on the framed picture of his wife and son on the dresser, while his vision cleared. Jonathan was just a baby then. And Clara was so pretty.
Carlisle stumbled to the second-story bedroom window of the officer quarters overlooking the sun-drenched Cape and watched his new ship, the old Princess Ann,with fascination. She was receiving the final coat of dark blue paint, one of the last stages of its conversion to Union gunboat duty. Carlisle and the crew of the USS Connecticut had returned to Hatteras with their prize, the Princess Ann, in tow. They were compensated by Squadron Leader Baines with a prompt, well-deserv
