running the blockade 14

running the blockade 14

The poor _Night Hawk_ was now a sheet of flame, and I thought it was all

up with her; and indeed it would have been had it not been for Lamb,

who, calling for volunteers from his garrison, sent off two or three

boat loads of men to her, and when I came down to the beach, after

having my wound dressed and a short rest, I was delighted to find the

fire had sensibly decreased. I went on board, and after some hours of

hard work the fire was extinguished. But what a wreck she was!

 

Luckily with the rising tide she had bumped over the bank, and was now

lying on the main beach much more accessible and sheltered. Still it

seemed an almost hopeless task to save her; but we were not going to be

beaten without a try, so, having ascertained how she lay and the

condition she was in, I resolved to have an attempt to get her dry, and

telegraphed to Wilmington for assistance.

 

Our agent sent me down about 300 negroes to assist in baling and

pumping, and I set them to work at once. As good luck would have it, my

finest steamer, _Banshee_ No. 2, which had just been sent out, ran in

the next night. She was a great improvement on the first _Banshee_,

having a sea-speed of 15-1/2 knots, which was considered very fast in

those days; her length was 252 feet, beam 31 feet, depth 11 feet, her

registered tonnage 439 tons, and her crew consisted of fifty-three in

all. I at once requisitioned her for aid in the shape of engineers and

men, so that now I had everything in the way of hands I could want. Our

great difficulty was that the _Night Hawk's_ anchors would not hold for

us to get a fair haul at her.

 

But here again I was to be in luck. For the very next night the

_Falcon_, commanded by poor Hewett, in attempting to run in stuck fast

upon the bank over which we had bumped, not one hundred yards to

windward of us, and broke in two. It is an ill wind that blows nobody

good, and Hewett's mischance proved the saving of our ship. Now we had a

hold for our chain cables by making them fast to the wreck, and were

able gradually to haul her off by them a little during each tide, until

on the seventh day we had her afloat in a gut between the bank and the

shore, and at high water we steamed under our own steam gaily up the

river to Wilmington.

 

Considering the appliances we had and the circumstances under which we

were working, the saving of that steamer was certainly a wonderful

performance, as we were under fire almost the whole time. The

Northerners, irritated, no doubt, by their failure to destroy the ship,

used to shell us by day and send in boats by night; Lamb, however, put a

stop to the latter annoyance by lending us a couple of companies to

defend us, and one night, when our enemies rowed close up with the

intention of boarding us, they were glad to sheer off with the loss of a

lieutenant and several men. In spite of all the shot and shell by day

and the repeated attacks at night, we triumphed in the end, and, after

having the _Night Hawk_ repaired at a huge cost and getting together a

crew, I gave May, a friend of mine, command of her, and he ran her out

successfully with a valuable cargo, which made her pay, notwithstanding

all her bad luck and the amount spent upon her. Poor May, he was

afterwards governor of Perth gaol, and is dead now,—a high-toned,

sensitive gentleman, mightily proud of his ship, lame duck as she was.

 

When she was burning, our utmost efforts were of course directed towards

keeping her engine-room and boilers amidships intact, and confining the

flames to both ends; in this we were successful, mainly owing to the

fact of her having thwart-ship bunkers: but as regards the rest of the

steamer she was a complete wreck; her sides were all corrugated with the

heat, and her stern so twisted that her starboard quarter was some two

feet higher than her port one, and not a particle of woodwork was left

unconsumed. Owing to the limited resources of Wilmington as regards

repairs, I found it impossible to have this put right, so her sides were

left as they were, and the new deck put on on the slope I have

described, and caulked with cotton, as no oakum was procurable. When

completed she certainly was a queer-looking craft, but as tight as a

bottle and as seaworthy as ever, although I doubt if any Lloyd's

surveyor would have passed her. But as a matter of fact she came across

the Atlantic, deeply immersed with her coal supply, through some very

bad weather, without damage, and was sold for a mere song, to be

repaired and made into a passenger boat for service on the East Coast,

where she ran for many years with success.

 

It had been a hard week for me, as I had no clothes except what I had on

when we were boarded,—my servant very cleverly, as he imagined, having

thrown my portmanteau into the man-of-war's boat when he thought I was

going to be captured, and all I had in the world was the old serge suit

in which I stood. Being without a change and wet through every day and

night for six days consecutively, it is little wonder that I caught

fever and ague, of which I nearly died in Richmond, and which

distressing complaint stuck to me for more than eighteen months. I shall

never forget, on going to a store in Wilmington for a new rig-out (which

by the bye cost $1200), the look of horror on the storekeeper's face

when I told him the coat I had purchased would do if he cut a foot off

it: he thought it such a waste of expensive material.

 

A very unfortunate occurrence took place incident upon the wreck of the

_Falcon_. She had on board as passenger a Mrs. Greenhow, a famous

Confederate spy, who, when the steamer struck, pleaded hard to be put

ashore, fearing no doubt capture by the Federals. Hewett was most

energetic in his efforts to dissuade her, but at last manned a boat for

her, which was upset in the breakers, and she alone was drowned. It was

I who found her body on the beach at daylight, and afterwards took it up

to Wilmington. A remarkably handsome woman she was, with features which

showed much character. Although one cannot altogether admire the

profession of a spy, still there was no doubt that she imagined herself

in following such a profession to be serving her country in the only way

open to her.

 

Surely in war the feelings of both men and women become blunted as to

the niceties of what is right or wrong. I well remember on one occasion

an eminent Confederate officer bringing me an infernal machine which he

had invented, a kind of shell exactly like a lump of coal, with a

request that some should be placed on each of our steamers, and that, in

case of capture, they should be put in the coal bunkers so as to be

thrown into the furnaces by the prize crew. I told him that this was not

my idea of making war, and moreover mildly suggested that, even if it

were, he seemed to have forgotten that our crew would probably be on

board as prisoners and be blown up into the air with their captors.

 

Another eminent Confederate military doctor proposed to me during the

prevalence of the yellow fever epidemic that he should ship by our boats

to Nassau and Bermuda sundry cases of infected clothing, which were to

be sent to the North with the idea of spreading the disease there. This

was too much, and I shouted at him, not in the choicest language, to

leave the office. It is difficult to conceive of such a diabolical idea,

not only to spread havoc among combatants, but among innocent women and

children, being present in an educated man's mind.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER X

 

EXPERIENCES ASHORE IN DIXIE'S LAND

 

Railway travelling in the Southern States—The conductor's

car—Carrying despatches—A weary and anxious wait—Under fire

in a train—Excitement in Richmond—General Lee's headquarter

staff—The Confederate Government—Privations in Richmond—The

bitterest rebels of the war—A startling dinner bill—Provisioning

General Lee's army—Admiral Porter's first attack on Fort

Fisher—The _Banshee_ No. 2 runs through the Federal

Fleet—General and Mrs. Randolph—A magnificent cargo.

 

 

The dangers and discomforts at sea were not the only excitements which a

blockade-runner experienced. As the blockade-running fleet of which I

had charge extended, not only was an increase in my office staff in

Nassau entailed, but a good deal of travelling by rail to and fro

between Wilmington and Richmond, for the purpose of negotiations with

the heads of departments there regarding the contracts we had with them,

and upon various other matters.

 

These trips involved an enormous amount of fatigue, worry, excitement,

and even danger, as it was no easy matter latterly to get in and out of

the beleaguered city safely; the railway journey itself, which often

extended over a couple of days and nights, was an affair of great

discomfort, the permanent way being anything but permanent, and the

rolling stock too often rolling elsewhere than upon the rails. It was

considered a joke in those days to assert that a journey from Wilmington

to Richmond was almost as dangerous as an engagement with the enemy. The

only place on the train where any approach to comfort was obtainable was

in the conductor's car, the entrée to which I generally contrived to

secure, aided by a little judicious palm-greasing and the possession of

a brandy bottle or two; but the latter had its disadvantages, as the

word was soon passed round that there was a Britisher on board the train

with some _real_ good brandy. And it was considered the duty of every

one to whom I had stood a drink to introduce a friend who wanted one

badly; consequently the brandy was generally used up on the outward

trip, and there was little left for the return. But it was great

pleasure to be able to quench the poor fellows' thirst, more especially

the wounded, with whom the cars were often filled to overflowing.

 

As a rule my good friend Heiliger, Confederate Agent at Nassau, used to

entrust me with despatches, the carriage of which provided me with a

pass which much facilitated my journeys; but on one occasion towards the

end of the war the possession of these despatches made it a little

awkward for me. I had arrived one afternoon at Petersburg, which is

about fifteen miles from Richmond, and found a tr