53

Pechin gave up newspaper work for a while after
1796 and devoted himself to book and pamphlet printing,
except for occasional forays into journalism by way cf
political articles for Edwards' Maryland Journal.⁸³

It was about this time that he formed a business
attachment with one of the more colorful personalities
of the Baltimore 1790's - David Porter, perhaps best
known as the father of Captain David Porter and grand-
father of Admiral David Dixon Porter. David Porter
the elder, with his brother Samuel, was active as a
privateersman during the Revolutionary War. In 1778
he commanded the sloop Delight, of six guns, fitted
out in Maryland; in 1780 he commanded the Aurora,
was captured by the British and confined in the prison
ship Jersey. After the war, he resided in Boston,
until he was appointed by Washington as sailing-master
in the Navy, and was given charge of the signal-station
on Federal Hill, Baltimore.⁸⁴ There, at his estab-
lishment which he called the Observatory, on Federal
Hill, overlooking the harbor of Baltimore, he engaged
in several activities beyond the routine duties of the
officer in charge of the signal-station.

His publishing ventures consisted, as far as is
known, of only two books. In 1796 a slender volume

83 Ingle, Edward, op. cit. p. 15.

84 Appleton's cyclopaedia of American biography,
V. 5, p. 73 *