Congress early adopted the policy of sending out privateers or armed vessels to capture British merchant vessels. These vessels became prizes for the captors. The _Oliver Cromwell_ was chartered by Connecticut, with letters of marque and reprisal from the United States. Captain Parker was in command. The _Defence_ accompanied the _Oliver Cromwell_; they sailed from New London; Timothy Boardman then twenty-four years of age enlisted and went on board; he commenced keeping the Log-Book April 11, 1778; he seems to have been head carpenter on board the ship, and to have had severe labors. His assistants appear to have deserted him before the close of the voyage. It was his duty to make any needful repairs after a storm, or in an engagement and to perform any such service necessary even at the time of greatest danger. In a terrific storm it was decided to cut away the mast. His hat fell from his head, but he scarcely felt it worth while to pick it up, as all were liable so soon to go to the bottom. In action, his place was below deck, to be in readiness with his tools and material to stop instantly, if possible, any leak caused by the enemies' shot. At one time the rigging above him was torn and fell upon him, some were killed; blood spattered over him, and it was shouted "Boardman is killed." He, however, and another man on board, a Mr. Post, father of the late Alpha Post of Rutland, were spared to make their homes for half a century among the peaceful hills of Vermont. In the following year 1779, he seems to have sailed down the Atlantic coast on an American merchant vessel. He was captured off Charleston, S. Carolina, by the British, but after a few days' detention, on board his Majesty's vessel, it was thought cheaper to send the prisoners on shore than to feed them, and he and his companions were given a boat and set at liberty. They reached Charleston in safety. The city was under martial law, and the new-comers were for about six weeks put upon garrison duty. About this time Lord Cornwallis was gaining signal advantages in that vicinity, while Gen. Gates, who had received the surrender of Burgoyne, three years before, was badly defeated. After completing this service the author of the Log-Book, started to walk home to Connecticut. He proceeded on foot to North Carolina, where Andrew Jackson was, then a poor boy of twelve years. Jackson's father, a young Irish emigrant died within two years after entering those forests, and his widow soon to become the mother of a President, was "hauled" through their clearing, from their deserted shanty, to his grave, among the stumps, in the same lumber wagon with the corpse of her husband. He had been dead twelve years when the pilgrim from Connecticut passed that way. Overcome, probably by fatigue and by malaria, his progress was arrested in North Carolina by fever, and he lay sick all winter among strangers.