[4V50 Gary]

"The ingenuity of men who have a passion for whiskey was well illustrated by some of the prisoners then in the fort who were detailed to roll the casks of liquor from the south wharf up the plank causeway and into the fort. The men who worked in pairs two to each cask, one at each chime. Before the men started on this duty some genius initiated them into the mystery of drawing liquour while the casks were in motion. They furnished themselves with gimlets and pine taps, and went on duty with empty canteens. Starting from the jetty with a cask, the man at the left chime would shortly insert the gimlet into the center of the head of the cask, and hold it firmly till the revolutions of the cask carried it through; then withdrawing the gimlet he held his canteen till it was full, when his pine tape was inserted, driven hard, broken off, and the scar smoothed over with dirt from the sides of the cask. The art was handsomely practiced, and probably would have passed undetected had it not been for one man who drew his canteen full from a cask of alcohol, from which he took so heavy a drink that it made him wild and noisy."