Cruise And Captures Of The Alabama Part 3

On October 21st, 1862, a large ship was seen carrying a cloud of canvas, and running with great speed before the wind. The reefs of the Alabama's topsails were shaken out and preparations made to set the topgallant sails in case it should be necessary, and the cruiser ran down diagonally toward the stranger's path. She was p.r.o.nounced "Yankee" long before she came within gunshot, and as she drew near a blank cartridge brought her to the wind. The admirable seamanship displayed in bringing her to a speedy halt called forth the praise of even the Alabama's captain, and one can only wonder that some of her master's skill was not expended in avoiding this suspicious steamer idling in mid-ocean. The British flag she wore could hardly deceive anybody, after the tales which were told by the captains who were taken into Boston on the Emily Farnum. But doubtless Captain Saunders relied upon the fact that his cargo was well covered with consular certificates, remembering that the Farnum had escaped by having a cargo which was owned abroad.

The prize proved to be the Lafayette, from New York, laden with grain for Belfast, Ireland. Captain Saunders readily obeyed the order of the boarding officer to go on board the Alabama with his ship's papers. He was shown into the presence of Captain Semmes, and produced his British consular certificate, with the remark that he supposed that was sufficient protection. After a hasty examination, Semmes said:

"New Yorkers are getting smart, but it won't save it. It's a d--d hatched up mess."

The Lafayette was burned.

The decree of the "Confederate Prize Court," which seems to have comprehended neither more nor less than the Alabama's commander, was in this case as follows:

CASE OF THE LAFAYETTE.

The ship being under the enemy's flag and register, is condemned.

With reference to the cargo, there are certificates, prepared in due form and sworn to before the British consul, that it was purchased, and shipped on neutral account. These _ex parte_ statements are precisely such as every unscrupulous merchant would prepare, to deceive his enemy and save his property from capture. There are two shipping houses in the case; that of Craig & Nicoll and that of Montgomery Bros. Messrs. Craig & Nicoll say that the grain shipped by them belongs to Messrs. Shaw & Finlay and to Messrs. Hamilton, Megault & Thompson, all of Belfast, in Ireland, to which port the ship is bound, but the grain is not consigned to them, and they could not demand possession of it under the bill of lading. It is, on the contrary, consigned to the order of the shippers; thus leaving the possession and control of the property in the hands of the shippers.

Farther: The shippers, instead of sending this grain to the pretended owners in a general ship consigned to them, they paying freight as usual, have chartered the whole ship, and stipulated themselves for the payment of all the freights. If this property had been, _bona fide_, the property of the parties in Belfast, named in the depositions, it would undoubtedly have gone consigned to them in a bill of lading authorizing them to demand possession of it; and the agreement with the ship would have been that the consignees and owners of the property should pay the freight upon delivery. But even if this property were purchased, as pretended, by Messrs. Craig & Nicoll for the parties named, still, their not consigning it to them and delivering them the proper bill of lading, pa.s.sing the possession, left the property in the possession and under the dominion of Craig & Nicoll, and as such liable to capture. See 3 Phillimore on International Law, 610, 612, to the effect that if the goods are going on account of the shipper or subject to his order or control, they are good prize. They cannot even be sold and transferred to a neutral _in transitu_. They must abide by their condition at the time of the sailing of the ship.

The property attempted to be covered by the Messrs. Montgomery Bros, is shipped by Montgomery Bros., of New York, and consigned to Montgomery Bros., in Belfast. Here the consignment is all right. The possession of the property has legally pa.s.sed to the Belfast house.

But when there are two houses of trade doing business as partners, and one of them resides in the enemy's country, the other house, though resident in a neutral country, becomes also enemy, _quoad_ the trade of the house in the enemy's country, and its share in any property belonging to the joint concern is subject to capture, equally with the share of the house in the enemy's country. To this point see 3 Phillimore, 605. Cargo condemned.

The next batch of prizes consisted of the Crenshaw, captured on the 26th of October, the Lauretta captured on the 28th, and the Baron de Castine on the 29th. The Crenshaw brought New York papers containing resolutions denouncing the "pirates," which had been introduced in the New York Chamber of Commerce by a Mr. Low, who was a member of that body, and had lost considerable property on account of the depredations of the Alabama.

The cargoes of the Crenshaw and Lauretta were covered by certificates of foreign ownership, but these were bunglingly gotten up, and evidently made only for the purpose of avoiding condemnation, and Captain Semmes, being well versed in international law, was able to pick flaws in all of them.

The Baron de Castine was an old and not very valuable vessel, bound with lumber from the coast of Maine to Cuba. She was released on a ransom bond, and carried the crews of the Lafayette, Crenshaw, and Lauretta, together with the derisive compliments of Captain Semmes to Mr. Low, into the port of New York, then distant only two hundred miles. The other prizes were burned.

The advent of the Baron de Castine carried fresh dismay to the shipping interests along the Atlantic coast. The news that a foreign consular certificate could not be relied upon to furnish protection seemed to sound the death knell of trade carried on in American ships. The representatives of the foreign governments whose seals had been defied were appealed to for a.s.sistance in putting an end to the career of the "pirate." The New York Commercial Advertiser published the following article:

Some important facts have just been developed in relation to the operations of the rebel privateer Alabama, and the present and prospective action of the British and other foreign governments, whose citizens have lost property by the piracies of her commander.

The depredations of the vessel involve the rights of no less than three European governments--England, Italy and Portugal--and are likely to become a subject of special interest to all maritime nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DESTROYING THE GRAIN FLEET.]

Already the capture and burning of the ship Lafayette, which contained an English cargo, has been the occasion of a correspondence between the British consul at this port, Mr.

Archibald, and Rear Admiral Milne, commanding the British squadron on the American coast; and it is stated (but we cannot vouch for the truth of the statement) that the admiral has dispatched three war vessels in pursuit of the pirate. The consul has also, we understand, communicated the facts of the case to the British government and Her Majesty's minister at Washington. What action will be taken by the British government remains to be seen.

The Lafayette sailed from this port with a cargo of grain for Belfast, Ireland. The grain was owned by two English firms of this city, and the facts were properly certified on the bills of lading under the British seal. * * *

But another case (that of the bark Lauretta) is about to be submitted for the consideration of the British authorities, as well as those of Italy and Portugal. The facts establish a clear case of piracy. The Lauretta, which had on board a cargo consisting princ.i.p.ally of flour and staves, was burned by Semmes on the 28th of October. She was bound from this port for the island of Madeira and the port of Messina, Italy. Nearly a thousand barrels of flour and also a large number of staves were shipped by Mr. H. J. Burden, a British subject residing in this city, to a relative in Funchal, Madeira. The bill of lading bore the British seal affixed by the consul, to whom the shipper was personally known. The other part of the cargo was shipped by Chamberlain, Phelps & Co. to the order of parties in Messina, and this property was also covered by the Italian consular certificates.

The Portuguese consul at this port also sent a package under seal to the authorities at Maderia, besides giving a right to enter the port and sending an open bill of lading.

Captain Wells' account of the manner in which Semmes disposed of these doc.u.ments, and which he has verified under oath, is not only interesting, but gives an excellent idea of the piratical intentions of the commander of the Alabama.

The papers of the bark were, at the command of Semmes, taken by Captain Wells on board the Alabama. There was no American cargo and therefore no American papers, except those of the vessel. These, of course, were not inquired into. Semmes took first the packet which bore the Portuguese seal, and with an air which showed that he did not regard it as of the slightest consequence, ripped it open, and threw it upon the floor, with the remark that he "did not care a d--n for the Portuguese." The Italian bill of lading was treated in a similar manner, except that he considered it unworthy even of a remark.

Taking up the British bill of lading and looking at the seal, Semmes called upon Captain Wells, with an oath, to explain. It was evidently the only one of the three he thought it worth his while to respect.

"Who is this Burden?" he inquired sneeringly. "Have you ever seen him?"

"I am not acquainted with him, but I have seen him once, when he came on board my vessel," replied Captain Wells.

"Is he an Englishman--does he look like an Englishman?"

"Yes," rejoined the captain.

"I'll tell you what," exclaimed the pirate, "this is a d--d pretty business--it's a d--d Yankee hash, and I'll settle it,"--whereupon he proceeded to rob the vessel of whatever he wanted, including Captain Wells' property to a considerable amount; put the crew in irons; removed them to the Alabama; and concluded by burning the vessel.

These facts will at once be brought before the British consul. The preliminary steps have been taken. The facts will also be furnished the Portuguese consul, who announces his intention of placing them before his government; and besides whatever action the Italian consul here may choose to take, the parties in Messina, to whom the property lost on the Lauretta was consigned, will of course do what they can to maintain their own rights. The case is likely to attract more attention than all the previous outrages of the Alabama, inasmuch as property rights of the subjects of other nations are involved, and the real character of Semmes and his crew becomes manifest.

Captain Semmes makes this sarcastic comment upon the foregoing article:

I was not quite sure when I burned the Lafayette that her cargo belonged to the shippers, British merchants resident in New York. The shippers swore that it did not belong to them, but to other parties resident in Ireland, on whose account they had shipped it. I thought they swore falsely, but, as I have said, I was not quite certain. The Advertiser sets the matter at rest. It says that I was right. And it claims, with the most charming simplicity, that I was guilty of an act of piracy, in capturing and destroying the property of neutral merchants, domiciled in the enemy's country, and a.s.sisting him to conduct his trade!

The alleged destruction of British property on board American ships attracted much less attention in England than in the United States. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce caused a letter to be addressed to the British foreign office asking for information in regard to the matter, to which the following reply was made:

Sir; I am directed by Earl Russell to reply to your letters of the 6th inst., respecting the destruction by the Confederate steamer Alabama of British property embarked in American vessels and burned by that steamer. Earl Russell desires me to state to you that British property on board a vessel belonging to one of the belligerants must be subject to all the risks and contingencies of war, so far as the capture of the vessel is concerned. The owners of any British property, not being contraband of war, on board a Federal vessel captured and destroyed by a Confederate vessel of war, may claim in a Confederate Prize Court compensation for the destruction of such property.

As the "Confederate prize court" which condemned the Alabama's prizes habitually walked about under her commander's hat, and as there was considerable doubt as to where a court competent and willing to review the decisions made, might be located, there was not much comfort in this letter for American ship owners or their prospective customers.

But the shippers of merchandise were not the only persons to whom the Baron de Castine's news brought fear and anxiety. The inhabitants of unprotected or but slightly protected towns along the coast already saw in imagination the Alabama steaming in upon them, demanding ransom, and leaving their homes in ashes. Captain Semmes loved to threaten New York, and one of the masters last released seems to have gone ash.o.r.e with the belief that the Alabama's next move would be to throw a few sh.e.l.ls into that city. But a descent upon the coast would have put Secretary Welles in possession of a knowledge of her whereabouts, whereas at sea her commander could usually calculate the time when the news of her movements would reach the nearest telegraph office, and shift her position just before the time when a powerful enemy would be likely to arrive.

CHAPTER VIII.

OFF DUTY AMUs.e.m.e.nTS.

When off duty the sailors amused themselves by spinning yarns and singing songs. Sometimes they got up a sparring match, and occasionally hazing of the duller or less active of the crew was indulged in. It is related that one sailor was nicknamed "Top-robbin" because he usually began his stories with the introduction, "When I sailed in the Taprobane, East Ingyman."

Once he was induced to attempt a song, and began in a voice in which a hoa.r.s.e ba.s.s struggled with a squeaky treble:

Jerry Lee was hung at sea For stabbing of his messmate true.

And his body did swing, a horrible thing, At the sport of the wild sea mew!

The whole watch shouted for him to stop, and he was warned:

"If you ever sing again in this 'ere watch while we're off soundings, we'll fire you through a lee port. Such a voice as that would raise a harrycane."

"Top-robbin's" yarns, however, were treated with more tolerance. He had a lively imagination and a very impressive delivery. His themes were of the ghostly sort--of phantom ships sailing against wind and tide, and women in white gliding on board in the midst of storms.

Curiously enough, Captain Semmes, who was constantly called a pirate and whose name was a.s.sociated in the minds of New England people with that of Captain Kidd, had gained the reputation in the forecastle of his own ship of being a sort of preacher, the impression doubtless dating from that introductory speech of his off Terceira, in which he predicted the blessings of Providence upon the Alabama's efforts to rid the South of the Yankees. One of the forecastle songs is said to have run thus:

Oh, our captain said, "When my fortune's made, I'll buy a church to preach in, And fill it full of toots and horns, And have a jolly Methodee screechin'.

"And I'll pray the Lord both night and morn To weather old Yankee Doodle-- And I'll run a hinfant Sunday School With some of the Yankee's boodle."

One sailor who claimed to have been an officer in the British navy had an excellent tenor voice, and delighted not only his messmates, but frequently the officers as well, with his rendering of popular songs. Even the captain used occasionally to stroll out on the bridge and listen with pleasure to the entertainment furnished with voice or violin. The following song, said to have been improvised by one of the crew, was sung on the night before the fight with the Kearsarge: