Edward Turns Tables On That Terrible Turk! By FRED HUMISTON Edward Preble of Portland, who was to become known as the Father of the United States Navy, was a Blue Water Man if ever there was one. He was born to the sea: salt was in his blood. The town's face was to the sea and it depended on the sea for it's very existence. Sailors were everywhere on the waterfront and on the business streets in the quieter sections. Tall-masted ships crowded the harbor and car- goes were carried out and brought back from the West Indies, Old England and even far-off Bombay and the ports of China. Any boy couldn't help but take an interest in such exciting things, and evidently young Edward was no excep- tion. Born in 1761, when Portland Chrispix Archive was still the Town of Fal- mouth, District of Maine, Prov- Edward Preble ince of Massachu setts, he was the son of that redoubtable fig- Edward Preble, born in ure in colonial history and Portland in 1761, was one economy, Jedediah Preble, of the first of that long known locally and even to Out- landers as "the Brigadier." line of young men of ener- gy and talent of whom it THE BRIGADIER was an ac- came to be said, "Another tive man of im posing build, Portland boy who made and was said to have been the first to climb Mt. Washington, good." red or white. A big man in every sense of the word, a poli- plained seriously. And every. tical leader and with consider- body knew that Mahound was able wealth and far-flung mer- about the most fiendish villain chandise pursuits, he was far in all the world, who made a from being a "stuffed shirt," habit of carrying off little boys like so many of the colonial to his own country, for pur- hierarchy. A stanch member of poses only to be guessed at the Church of England, his Edward was definitely im household was, therefore, less pressed and very thoughtful. straitlaced than those of his That evening the wily Brig neighbors, all Congregational- adier arranged matters so that ists, the leading church since Edward and one of his younger the Puritan take-over, brothers would be left alone in The Preble house. with its 12 the house, the only light from children and easy-going fa- the burning logs in the fire ther, was indeed a lively and place. A noise at the widow noisy place, in a rather staid brought them to instant atten community, and the Brigadier tion. himself was a always roaring It was the terrible Turk! Fol with laughter, for he was a lowing in his father's footsteps great hand for practical jokes. he climbed through the win Churchmen, soldiers, mer- dow, leather bag in hand, in chants, sailors: no one was en- which to stuff little boys. The tirely safe from what was oft- Brigadier, watching from th en felt by the victims to be outside through another win outrageous humor. Nor did his dow, nudged a friend. "This children escape. will be good," he said. Of the children, Edward was The little brother stood fro the especial butt of his humor, zen, but Edward didn't panic uncoudad the least hit Grabbing o burn