running the blockade 5

running the blockade 5

After all I had gone through it was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was

impossible for a man entirely without experience, as I was then, to

ignore the exasperating unanimity of the experts; therefore after

consultation with the local agent of my firm I resolved to sell my

cargoes on the spot and get both vessels home to the best advantage.

 

Still I was not without consolation. Although within a year of the

beginning of the blockade the North, in pursuit of a steady policy, had

secured various bases on the blockaded coast for the use of their

squadrons, which were rapidly being augmented by improved types of

vessels, and had thereby reduced considerably the number of points to be

watched, and though the business of blockade-running was now becoming

risky, no time was lost in endeavouring to meet the new demands on our

energy and skill. If the Federals were learning the business, so were

we. It was clear that the blockade-runners must not only be increased in

numbers but must be improved in type. The day of sailing vessels and

ordinary trading steamers was over; accordingly steamers of great speed

were ordered to be built expressly for the service.

 

I knew that at home one of the first vessels specially built for

blockade-running had been laid down and was rapidly being completed,

also that she was to be placed under my charge as soon as ready.

Accordingly, towards the end of the year, after making my preliminary

arrangements, I went home full of hope, although sadly impatient at the

year's delay caused by all the mistakes and disasters.

 

Before getting there, however, I had an anxious time to pass through; it

was necessary to provide some employment for the _Despatch_ and her

consort the barque _Astoria_, and as no direct freight could be obtained

for either I had to cast about for intermediate work for them. The

sailing vessel I despatched to New York, and in an evil moment I made a

contract, on the "no cure no pay" principle, for the _Despatch_ to tow a

disabled steamer to the same port, arranging to go myself in the mail

steamer so as to meet both ships there.

 

After I had completed my Nassau business I did so, and on my arrival at

New York I was disgusted to find both vessels in quarantine with yellow

fever on board; also that the _Despatch_ had dropped her tow off

Port-Royal in a gale of wind and come on without her.

 

This was a pretty mess for a youngster to be in, in a strange port like

New York, where everything connected with Nassau was looked upon with

suspicion, and the fear of yellow fever was rampant. It was my first

intimate acquaintance with the disease, but, fortunately, the cooler

climate in time worked its own cure, and, after encountering innumerable

quarantine difficulties, both vessels were given pratique, but not

before several deaths had occurred.

 

In the interim the _Despatch_ was seized for $30,000 at the suit of the

owners of the steamer which she had attempted to tow, as damages for

letting her go; and she was only released from quarantine to find

herself in the clutches of the Marshal of the port. As I had no means

for providing the required security, the captain and I formed rather a

mad scheme to rescue her from his clutches. The captain was to get her

under weigh quietly, taking the Marshal's officer with him, while I

remained behind to lull suspicion. Early one misty morning he

accomplished this successfully and began to steam slowly down the Bay,

but the revenue cutter lying close alongside gave the alarm, and the

forts opened fire at once. For a time he held on, and was nearly out of

range when the pilot, fearing, I presume, for his share in the

transaction, declined to go further, and there was nothing for it but

ignominiously to return. Of course all this made my position worse, but,

to make a long story short, a kind friend, a prominent New York banker,

went bail for me, and the _Despatch_ was released and loaded for home.

Finally I compromised the case for about $2000. The barque I sent on to

St. John, and, following her myself by steamer, I chartered her to carry

home a cargo of timber.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III

 

THE _BANSHEE_ NO. 1

 

A landmark in marine architecture—The lines of the _Banshee_—Her

crew—Serious defects—Loss of time—Driven back off the

Fastnet—Arrival at Madeira—Northerners and the duties of

neutrals—Southern sympathies—Federal cruisers—Nearing the

Bahamas—Admiral Wilkes—The _Banshee_ runs into

Nassau—Preparing for business—A daring and successful

commander—Engineer Erskine—Tom Burroughs.

 

 

After my disappointment it will easily be imagined how anxious I was to

know how my new ship was progressing. On reaching Liverpool my first

care was to visit the yard where she was being built. To my great

delight I found her almost completed, and a marvel of shipbuilding as it

seemed to us then. For the _Banshee_, as she was called, may claim to be

a landmark not only in the development of blockade but also of marine

architecture. With the exception of a boat built for Livingstone of

African fame, she was, I believe, the first steel ship ever laid down.

The new blockade-runner was a paddle boat, built of steel, on

extraordinarily fine lines, 214 feet long and 20 feet beam, and drew

only 8 feet of water. Her masts were mere poles without yards, and with

the least possible rigging. In order to attain greater speed in a

sea-way she was built with a turtle-back deck forward. She was of 217

tons net register, and had an anticipated sea speed of eleven knots,

with a coal consumption of thirty tons a day. Her crew, which included

three engineers and twelve firemen, consisted of thirty-six hands all

told.

 

Steel ship-building was then in its infancy, and the _Banshee_ was the

first of a fleet that was soon to become famous. There were several

similar steamers already in hand, and although no one could tell how

they would behave when exposed to the great seas of the Atlantic, the

best results were anticipated from the strength and lightness of their

materials. They were expected to develop a buoyancy beyond everything

that had yet been seen, and American naval officers awaited their

arrival on the scene of activity with an interest as great as ours.

 

The _Banshee_ was ready for sea early in 1863, and I had the

satisfaction of finding myself steaming down the Mersey in the _first_

steel vessel that ever crossed the Atlantic.

 

Like most first attempts, however, she was far from a success, and by

the time we reached Queenstown she had betrayed serious defects. To

begin with, the speed she developed was extremely disappointing. With

the idea of protecting her boilers from shot, they had been constructed

so low that they had not sufficient steam space, and, worse than this,

the plates of which she was built, being only an 1/8 and 3/16 of an inch

thick, she proved so weak that her decks leaked like a sieve. It was

found absolutely necessary to put into Queenstown and make such

alterations as were possible. Thus three more weeks were lost, and when

at last we were able to put out again it was only to be driven back off

the Fastnet by a south-westerly gale, which swept the _Banshee_ clean

from stem to stern of everything on deck, filled her fore stoke-hole,

and compelled us to return for fresh repairs. Considering how frail the

vessel was, the wonder is, not that the _Banshee_ was driven back, but

that she ever got across the Atlantic at all. Still her next start was

successful, and reaching Madeira without adventure, excepting a close

shave from being run down in the Bay of Biscay by a French barque, she

began her real career as a blockade-runner.

 

For even here danger began. At this time a great deal of bad blood was

caused by the way in which the Northerners in their efforts to enforce a

blockade were extending the doctrine of the operations permissible to

belligerents. But there is no doubt now that they were perfectly right.

True, the proposition that a belligerent might seize a neutral ship for

attempted breach of blockade thousands of miles away from the blockaded

coast was one that would have been condemned by the old school of

International lawyers as nothing less than monstrous, and by none more

energetically than the great publicists who have so richly adorned the

American bench.

 

So far were such doctrines from being recognised, that it was generally

held that a vessel making a long ocean voyage might even call at a

blockaded port to inquire if the blockade was still existent, and, no

matter how suspicious her intentions, she was entitled to a warning

before being captured. But it must be remembered that those were the

days of sailing ships, which might have been without any news of passing

events for months. No blockade of any importance had yet been subjected

to the new conditions of steam navigation, and it was unreasonable to

expect that the blockaders would hold themselves bound by rules which

never contemplated the existing state of things. If the Americans were

stretching the theory of blockade, it was only because we were extending

its practice. It was not to be argued that, if we were building a whole

fleet of steamers for the express purpose of defying their cruisers,

they were not justified in trying to intercept them at any point they

chose. From the very outset the voyages of these vessels showed them to

be guilty, and the most barefaced advocate could hardly have maintained

without shame that they were protected by their ostensibly neutral

destination, when that destination was a notorious nest of offence like

Nassau.

 

Still the new methods were none the less galling to the susceptibilities

of British merchants, who of all men claimed to go and come on the high

seas as they pleased, and every day those engaged in the service became

more pronounced in their Southern sympathies, and louder in their

denunciations of the Northerner's high-handed ways.

 

In order to economise coal the _Banshee_ was taking the usual course

adopted by sailing vessels. This was the ordinary practice of runners,