Cruise And Captures Of The Alabama Part 8

The Alabama had now made some fifty captures, and American vessels were taking circuitous routes in order to avoid her. In some cases they had been sold to British owners, and doubtless there were many pretended sales for the purpose of obtaining the protection of the neutral flag. Several vessels were overhauled off the Brazilian coast by the Alabama, where a real or pretended transfer to neutral owners had been made. The papers being regular in each case, Captain Semmes had no alternative but to release them. But woe to any ship or cargo in whose papers any technical flaw could be made to justify him in disregarding them!

In the afternoon of May 25th the Alabama's lookout reported a sail in sight and the cruiser had hardly made ready to pursue before another sail was descried. On nearer approach both were p.r.o.nounced Yankee, but the Alabama was not able to overhaul them until after sunset. The first ship boarded was the S. Gildersleeve, of New York, with a cargo of coal. The cargo was from London, and was probably owned there, but no proper certificate of that fact being found, ship and cargo were condemned to the flames. The other vessel was the bark Justina, of Baltimore, with a neutral cargo, properly certified. The Justina was released on ransom bond and the crew of the S. Gildersleeve transferred to her. The sea was very rough, and the transfer of the prisoners after dark was no easy task. The light having gone out on one of the boats, it came very near being run down by the Alabama while changing position. At eleven o'clock that night the Gildersleeve was ready for the torch.

The next night about 8:30 the Alabama began a chase by moonlight which lasted all night. With very careful handling the cruiser was able to gain slightly on the chase, which was also well handled and carrying a press of sail. After daylight the next morning the chase obeyed the signal of a blank cartridge and proved to be--a Dutch vessel!

Forty-eight hours later another night chase yielded better results. The vessel overhauled this time was the Jabez Snow, of Rockport, Maine, with a cargo of coal, and bound from Cardiff, Wales, to Uruguay. A certificate of neutral ownership of the cargo was produced by the master, but not being sworn to, no attention was paid to it, and the ship was burned.

June 2d at half past three o'clock in the morning the Alabama pa.s.sed a large ship on the opposite tack. The cruiser made sail in pursuit. At daylight the fugitive was still six or seven miles distant, and refused to obey the Alabama's gun. At 10:30 the cruiser had crept up within four miles, and a shot from the "Persuader" brought the chase to a stop. This prize was the Amazonian, of Boston, also bound for the coast of Uruguay.

The cargo was an a.s.sorted one, and there were two claims of neutral property; but Captain Semmes picked flaws in both of them, and the ship was condemned to be burned. In searching for some boxes of soap and candles which were needed on the Alabama, the ocean was strewn with boxes and bales, many of them containing articles of high value. Pianos, cases of fine shoes, and the like, were dumped like so much rubbish until the coveted soap was brought to light. Having secured what was deemed necessary, the ship was set on fire. The next day an English brigantine was boarded, and by presenting her master with a chronometer, of which there were now a great number on the cruiser, taken from prizes, and a considerable quant.i.ty of provisions, Captain Semmes persuaded him to take the Alabama's prisoners, about forty in number, to Rio Janeiro.

June 5th just before daylight the fine clipper ship Talisman ran within gunshot of the Alabama before discovering her presence. She was bound from New York to the coast of China, and had on board four bra.s.s twelve-pounder cannon and ammunition for them. Two of these cannon were transferred to the Alabama, with the ammunition and some provisions, and the vessel was then burned.

During the next two weeks no less than three "Yankee" ships were fallen in with, which had been sold to British owners, and an American cargo was found bound for New York in a Bremen ship. The Confederate commander was exultant over these multiplying proofs of the terror which his arms had inspired.

The 20th of June brought a new departure in the Alabama's career. On that day the bark Conrad, of Philadelphia, homeward bound from Buenos Ayres with a cargo of wool, was captured. There were declarations of English ownership, but Captain Semmes p.r.o.nounced them fraudulent. Instead of burning this prize, however, he determined to fit her out to a.s.sist in the work of destroying American commerce. A crew of fifteen men was sent on board under command of Lieutenant Low, with Midshipman William H. Sinclair as his first officer. The two twelve pounders taken from the Talisman were transferred to her, with a supply of rifles and revolvers, and the vessel was rechristened the Confederate States bark Tuscaloosa.

The Alabama was now south of the tropic of Capricorn and on her way to the Cape of Good Hope. Captain Semmes still hoped to find the Agrippina on the South African coast, but after spending some days on the voyage, the ship's bread was discovered to be nearly destroyed by weevil, and it became necessary to put back to Rio Janeiro for a fresh supply. On the first day of July the Alabama was again nearing the locality where she had parted from the Tuscaloosa. After overhauling no less than eleven neutral ships during the day, chase was given to the twelfth at eleven o'clock p. m. As the day broke the chase developed into a fine tall ship with tapering spars and white canvas. At the summons of a blank cartridge, she showed the United States flag, but her master refused to heave to, and was evidently determined not to permit his ship to be captured until the last resource of seamanship had failed. It was not until the cruiser had crept near enough to throw a sh.e.l.l screaming across her bow, that she shortened sail. The prize proved to be the Anna F. Schmidt, bound from Boston to San Francisco with a valuable a.s.sorted cargo. If she had been fitted out as a supply ship for the Alabama she could hardly have met the needs of the hour better. An abundance of bread put an end to the need of another visit to unfriendly Brazil. Trousers and shoes for the sailors, and plenty of warm underclothing, so much needed in the colder region which the cruiser was now approaching, were dug up out of the hold. The whole day was consumed in the looting. Great quant.i.ties of crockery and gla.s.sware, lamps, clocks, sewing machines, patent medicines and so on, were flung overboard in order that the needed articles might be found, and at night the match was applied to what remained.

As the cruiser stood away from the blazing ship at 9 p. m. she fired a bow gun to bring to a large ship speeding northward. The stranger answered also with a gun. Aha! a man-of-war. But why this haste? Why carry royals in such a gale, unless safety depends upon it. The stranger must be a "Yankee" gun boat and one afraid to meet us, judging from the heels he shows. Or perhaps a valuable merchant ship playing man-of-war in order to deceive. So reasoned Captain Semmes, and pressed on both steam and sail to overhaul the fleeing stranger. At midnight the Alabama was near enough to hail.

"What ship is that?" shouted Lieutenant Kell through his trumpet.

"This is her Brittanic Majesty's ship Diomede," was the reply. And so vanished alike the captain's hope of a rich prize and the sailors'

thoughts of a battle. As ships of war are not expected to obey a summons to heave to and show papers, the Diomede flew away on her course, and the Alabama shortened sail and banked her fires.

July 6th the Express, of Boston, bound for Antwerp, with a cargo of guano, said to be the property of the government of Peru, was captured. Captain Semmes found flaws in the certificate of neutral ownership, and the vessel was burned.

July 29th the Alabama reached the coast of South Africa and anch.o.r.ed at Saldanha Bay, an excellent but secluded harbor about ninety miles north of Cape Town. Here the Alabama was repaired and painted and word sent to the governor of the colony that the neutrality laws would be carefully respected. The first loss of life since the beginning of the cruise occurred August 3d, when one of the engineers accidentally shot himself while returning from a hunting expedition. Three days later, finding that there were no Union cruisers about the colony, and the Agrippina not having put in an appearance, the Alabama proceeded to Cape Town. On the way she spoke the Tuscaloosa, and Lieutenant Low reported that he had captured the Santee, which ship, having a neutral cargo, he had released on bond.

CHAPTER XVII.

HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE VANDERBILT.

The fame of the Alabama had preceded her, and her reception at the capital of the colony was an ovation. One of the Cape Town newspapers thus describes her arrival:

On the 27th of July no little excitement was caused in Cape Town on the arrival of the coasting schooner Rover from Walwich Bay, with the news that the Confederate steamer Alabama had actually made her appearance about twenty-five miles off Green Point. * * * Nothing further was heard, and it was thought by some that she had proceeded on to the eastward; but on the afternoon of August 4 public excitement was again aroused on the arrival of the schooner Atlas, Capt. Boyce, from Saldanha Bay, with the intelligence that the Alabama was lying snugly at anchor in that bay repairing. * * *

Captain Boyce also informed us that he had boarded the steamer and was told by her commander that it was his intention to visit both Table Bay and Simons Bay, and that he would be up almost as soon as the Atlas. This bit of news put every one on the _qui vive_, and the eagerly looked for arrival was the sole subject of talk. Tuesday pa.s.sed, but the Alabama had not made her appearance yet.

About noon on the following day (Wednesday) an American bark was signalled as standing into Table Bay from the southwest. Almost immediately after a bark-rigged steamer was made down as standing in from the northeast.

The stoop of the Exchange and the s.p.a.ce around the signalman's office behind the Custom House, and all other places from which the signals could be made out, were soon crowded; and when the name of the steamer was made known, the excitement pa.s.sed all bounds. The news spread through Cape Town like wild fire:

"The Alabama is outside the bay, in chase of an American bark!"

Trading was forgotten--the busiest rushed out of their offices and shops; every cab on the stand loaded regardless of munic.i.p.al regulations, and vanished up the Kloof road or down Somerset road.

Hors.e.m.e.n galloped about the street, and then spurred their steeds right up the Lion's rump. Men, women and children were seized as with frenzy, and rushed about here, there and everywhere, asking and telling the most contradictory and unheard of things.

"They were firing at each other!--at close quarters!--the smoke and roar of the battle could be quite distinctly heard from the breakwater!"

And the sh.o.r.e from that point round to Camp's bay was, in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time, lined with no inconsiderable portion of the madly excited citizens of Cape Town. * * * The fine bark Sea Bride, having run the gauntlet of the Confederate fleet on the Atlantic, had deemed her voyage to be approaching a happy end, and, with full sail set, a favoring breeze and the star-spangled banner at her peak, she sped onward like a thing of life and beauty, in full view of the port to which she was bound. Dimly in the north she descried a steamer standing likewise for the bay, and congratulated herself on her good luck in arriving just in time to receive the latest American news of Vicksburg or the Rappahanock by the English mail. Fast as the bark went, the steamer sped faster still, and in a very unaccountable manner seemed to be bearing down upon the Yankee.

In less than half an hour the suspicious craft had fairly overhauled her, and, with the dreadful Confederate flag run up at the peak, left little doubt that the Sea Bride was to become the prey of the redoubtable cruiser, the Alabama. But still, as it appeared to us who witnessed the whole scene from Green Point sh.o.r.e, the Northerner determined to strain every nerve to escape his foe and reach the neutral waters within the charmed league from sh.o.r.e.

The demand from the steamer to heave to was answered by a defiant pressing on of every st.i.tch of canvas, and a still more jaunty display of the stars and stripes at the mizzen. The chase was then continued for a few seconds longer; but at no time was the issue of it uncertain. The Alabama seemed to cut the waters with prodigious speed, and a blank charge from one of her big guns brought the Sea Bride to a full stop. The Confederate, puffing off her steam in enormous volumes, moved gently round her fated victim, and seemed to gaze upon her with the complacent satisfaction a cat might show after the seizure of a tempting mouse, or a hawk which in swift descent had pounced on its unsuspecting prey. A boat was sent to go on board the bark--a few minutes longer and it was impossible to judge what was happening; until at last the stars and stripes were struck, and the Northern bark Sea Bride was manifestly proclaimed a Confederate prize.

When the Alabama anch.o.r.ed in the bay, she was surrounded by boats, the occupants all eager to view ship, officers and crew; and the Confederates found themselves the heroes of the hour. The history of their captures and the battle with the Hatteras had to be related over and over again, with various grades of embellishment, according to the veracity or imagination of the narrator. The newspaper account continues:

Next day the excitement in town was if possible still greater. The day was to all intents and purposes a general holiday. The weather was favorable, charming; the bay was as smooth and sparkling as a sheet of gla.s.s, and every man, woman and child in Cape Town seemed to have made up their minds to get on board the Alabama in some; way or other. * * * The Alabama took in and discharged a living freight at the rate of about sixty in the minute from eight o'clock in the morning till four or five in the afternoon. * * * The boatmen quarreled, roared and swore, as their eager living cargoes tumbled in and out of large boats into little ones, utterly reckless of their lives in their mad haste to get into the ship. The ladies' crinolines blocked the ladders and gangways. * * * The great center of attraction was Captain Semmes. "Where is he?" "Might we just have a look at him?" "Do let us down," "Do make a little room," begged and prayed ladies and gentlemen all day long at the head of the companion ladder leading down to the cabin.

Captain Semmes seems to have borne his honors with a becoming grace, and to have made a good impression upon his army of visitors. Bartelli, the captain's steward, acted as master of ceremonies, and refused to admit any one until his or her card had first been sent in, and he had very diplomatic ways of getting rid of people who did not impress him as being of the proper social standing. Invitations to make visits on sh.o.r.e were showered upon the officers and some of them were accepted. Quires of paper were consumed in autographs, and the officers posed for their photographs on deck.

The Alabama remained here and at Simons Bay until August 15th under various pretexts of needed repairs. The United States consul made the claim that the Sea Bride had been captured within the marine league, and also that while in charge of the prize crew she had approached within a mile and a half of the sh.o.r.e. On the 8th the Tuscaloosa came into Simons Bay, and the consul protested that her proper name was the Conrad, that she had never been condemned in an admiralty court, that her original cargo of wool was still on board, and that the mere fact that two bra.s.s guns and a dozen men had been transferred to her decks could not deprive her of the character of a prize, which it would be unlawful to bring into a British port. Governor Wodehouse decided both of these cases in favor of the Confederates, but having reported the facts to the British government, his action in the case of the Tuscaloosa was disapproved. Accordingly, when that vessel again appeared in port he caused her to be seized. This proceeding was also disapproved at London, on the ground that having once found an asylum in a British port, she had a right to expect similar treatment in the future. This diplomatic controversy was many months in progress, and before a final decision was arrived at there were no Confederate officers at the Cape to whom she could be delivered. After the war she was transferred to her original owners.

August 9th the Alabama steamed out from Cape Town, bound for Simons Bay.

As she pa.s.sed out of the harbor two American ships were sighted by the signalman on sh.o.r.e. But they were warned of their danger by some boats, and, the weather being foggy, they got inside the marine league without being seen by the Confederates. The same day the Alabama captured the bark Martha Wenzel near the entrance to False Bay, but, having taken his bearings, Captain Semmes decided that the capture had been made in British waters, and accordingly released her, much to the joy of her commander, who had expected to witness her destruction.

August 28th the Alabama arrived at Angra Pequena Bay, on the west coast of Africa, more than a hundred miles north of the northern boundary of the Cape Colony, whither the Tuscaloosa and Sea Bride had preceded her. The harbor was good, but the country was a rainless, sandy, rock-bound desert, without so much as a shrub or a blade of gra.s.s; and no nation had as yet set up any claim to it.

At last Captain Semmes had found a port into which he could take a prize.

The few naked and half starved Hottentots who appeared made no remonstrance against the violation of neutrality.

The Sea Bride and her cargo were sold to a Cape Town merchant for about one-third of their value, he to take the risk arising from the fact that she had never been condemned in a prize court, and the money was paid and possession given him at this secluded place. Here also was deposited the wool from the Tuscaloosa, to be picked up by another speculator, who was to ship it to Europe and credit the Confederate government with two-thirds of the proceeds. Two months later the Vanderbilt visited Angra Pequena and captured there the British bark Saxon, having a large part of the wool on board, and sent her to a prize court in the United States.

The United States consul at Cape Town, having heard of the Alabama's little mark down sales, protested against the vending of any of the goods within the colony by the purchasers. After much delay and difficulty the cargo of the Sea Bride was peddled out in Madagascar and elsewhere, and the vessel herself turned adrift--for a consideration--with the understanding that certain persons should pick her up as a derelict.

When the Alabama returned to Simons Town, she found the Vanderbilt had been there, and had, moreover, taken in all the coal which was to be had in the place. The Vanderbilt was an enormous consumer of coal, a fact which interfered considerably with her movements in a quarter of the world where coal was so high in price and so uncertain in supply. Lieutenant Baldwin had fairly turned the tide of popular opinion in his favor by his magnanimous conduct in the case of a Dutch bark, which the Vanderbilt found in a disabled state a hundred miles from the sh.o.r.e, and which she towed safely into a harbor. Lieutenant Baldwin declined to accept any part of the salvage which he might have claimed, and although he was delayed some twenty-four hours in his chase of Confederate cruisers by the incident, the improved feeling toward the United States government in South Africa was of much greater value. The three months rule was so far relaxed that the Vanderbilt coaled three times in British ports within three months, instead of only once, as the rule prescribed. Permission to coal a fourth time was, however, denied.

Not being able to procure any coal at Simons Bay, Captain Semmes had a supply sent around from Cape Town in a merchant vessel. Meanwhile the crew were permitted to have sh.o.r.e liberty, and nearly the entire number, including the petty officers, proceeded to get as drunk as possible. A week was spent in getting the unruly fellows on board and coaling ship. On September 24th, finding himself still fourteen hands short, Captain Semmes shipped eleven new ones at Simons Bay, although this was in direct violation of the British neutrality act. The Vanderbilt was reported not far outside the bay, but the Alabama succeeded in avoiding her, and steamed out to sea the same night in the teeth of a southeast gale.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PALSIED COMMERCE IN THE FAR EAST.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _United States Steamer Wyoming._]

Running southward to the fortieth parallel, the Alabama availed herself of both a trade wind and a current setting eastward. The following month was spent in the eastward trip, which, aside from storms and bad weather, was uneventful. In the latter part of October she approached the East Indies.

Pa.s.sing vessels reported the United States war sloop Wyoming, a vessel of about the same grade as the Alabama, as guarding the Strait of Sunda. The Confederate cruiser hung round the entrance of the strait for two weeks, and then ran through without encountering the Wyoming, which had gone to Batavia for a fresh supply of coal. On November 6th, just before entering the strait, the Alabama gave chase to and captured the United States bark Amanda, laden with sugar and hemp. There was an attempt to cover the cargo with British consular certificates, but these not being sworn to, the vessel was burned. At the other end of the strait the fine clipper Winged Racer was encountered and met a like fate. Here the Alabama obtained a much needed supply of pigs, chickens and fresh vegetables from a fleet of Malay b.u.m boats, and proceeded on her way.

November 11th the magnificent clipper Contest led the Alabama a desperate chase in the Sea of Java, and although the latter was under both sail and steam, came very near escaping. Captain Semmes ordered some of the forward guns trundled aft and the crew a.s.sembled on the quarter deck, by which means the bow of the cruiser was lifted higher in the water; and, the wind dying down, the Alabama got near enough to reach the chase with her guns and compel her to heave to. Her master brought his papers on board the Alabama, which showed both ship and cargo to be American. The beautiful vessel, the pride of master and crew, was consigned to the flames. Her mate was placed in irons after he had knocked down an officer of the Alabama and offered to fight any "pirate" on board.

The American shipping trade in the East Indies was paralyzed. Few United States vessels ventured to put to sea, and fewer still could get profitable cargoes. At Manila, at Singapore, at Bangkok, and wherever a snug harbor was offered, American ships were lying idly at the docks. The Wyoming had no better success in pursuit of the Alabama than the Vanderbilt, and never once sighted the pestiferous Confederate.