Joseph Flitner Jr.’s 1833 Trip to Bermuda
Joseph Flitner Jr. (1808-1850) was given command of the brig Enterprise no later than October 1832, when he was twenty-four years of age. In the following year, while sailing from Baltimore to Bermuda with a cargo of “flour, meal, corn, oxen, sheep, &c” he encountered a capsized merchant vessel from which he rescued a young boy and returned him to his home in Bermuda. Instead of receiving a hero’s welcome, Captain Flitner was served with a summons to appear in court, where the owner of the capsized vessel accused him of taking a large sum of money from the vessel.