Irish prose fiction in 1726 published the first great work by an Anglo-Irish writer, "Gulliver's Travels". Though this had no specifically Irish relevance, it set a standard for later writers in English. The eighteenth century saw the birth in Ireland of two distinguished novelists, Laurence Sterne (1713 – 1768) and Oliver Goldsmith (1728 – 1774), both of whom, however, made their careers in England. Despite this, their oeuvre is often included in the Anglo-Irish literary canon. Sterne published "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" (1759–1767), a satire on the biographical novel. Goldsmith, best known as a poet, published "The Vicar of
USS Tristram Shandy (1864) 1865, she captured blockade runner "Blenheim". The runner's captain and crew had not received the news of the fall of Fort Fisher and anchored off Mound Battery. He thus fell prey to Union sailors from the gunboat, who boarded "Blenheim", and captured her easily. On 31 January, "Tristram Shandy" joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and remained with that group into the spring. Returning north, she served as a dispatch vessel with Union forces operating in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Admiral Porter embarked in "Tristram Shandy" on 14 April, after the admiral had previously escorted President Abraham Lincoln on a tour