A NEW ADVERSARY.
June 11th, 1864, the Alabama entered the port of Cherbourg, France, and Captain Semmes made application for leave to place his vessel in a dock for the purpose of replacing the copper sheathing, which was working loose and retarding the speed of the vessel. The boilers also required to be replaced or repaired. But the only docks at Cherbourg were those belonging to the government, and as the port admiral felt some reluctance in regard to admitting a belligerant vessel to a government dock, the matter was referred to the emperor (Napoleon III).
Sunday, June 12th, was a quiet day in the Netherlands. The shipping in the Scheldt was lying quietly at anchor, and Sabbath stillness had settled down upon the docks and the town. The idlers of Flushing, who were gazing with some curiosity at the United States screw sloop Kearsarge, suddenly became aware of some unusual stir upon her decks. Presently a signal flag appeared at the fore, and the boom of a gun waked the river echoes. This was notice to absent officers and seamen that work was at hand, and that there was to be no more loitering in Holland.
United States Steamer Kearsarge.
The absentees hurried on board, and as soon as there was a sufficient head of steam the vessel turned her prow toward the North Sea. The crew were assembled, and Captain Winslow told them of a telegram from Mr. Dayton, the United States minister at Paris, containing the information that the Alabama had run into Cherbourg, and requesting him to run down to that place immediately. The announcement was received with cheers, and every one was in high spirits at the prospect of a battle with the famous cruiser.
Captain Semmes was warned of the approach of the Kearsarge in ample time to enable him to get away, but he made no attempt to do so, and it soon became evident that he intended to fight. Commodore Barron, of the Confederate navy, was in France at this time, impatiently awaiting the completion of the two iron clads then building at Bordeaux, of which he expected to have the command. Captain Semmes communicated to him his desire to engage the Kearsarge, and was advised that he might use his own judgment in the matter.
European partisans of the South could paint the career of the Alabama in the most glowing colors. Captain Semmes was the “gallant,” “noble,” “chivalrous,” “heroic” commander, and officers and crew shared in the honors heaped upon him. But there were not wanting, either in Great Britain or in France, those who were disposed to echo the cry of “pirate!” which went up from the press of New York and Boston. The claim was made that the Alabama waged warfare exclusively upon defenceless merchantmen, and therefore was not entitled to be considered as a vessel of war. Her defenders could only point to that solitary thirteen-minute fight with the Hatteras. A Scotch paper called attention to the fact that although Captain Semmes had “destroyed property to the value of between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000, he has never once attacked or come in the way of a vessel of his own calibre, except under false colors, and with a lie in the mouth of his officials.”
There is no doubt that the Confederate captain chafed under criticisms of this character. On the other hand, American shipping had been all but driven from the ocean, and if the Alabama was to refrain from battles with armed vessels, her usefulness, except as a mere patrol, was at an end. And, again, if the Alabama waited to refit she might have to fight a whole fleet in order to get to sea.
June 14th the Kearsarge steamed into Cherbourg through the east entrance and sent a boat on shore, but kept on and went out at the west entrance without anchoring. This was construed by some as an act of defiance, but the real reason was to avoid coming within the provisions of the twenty-four hour rule. Captain Semmes changed his request for a dock permit to an order for coal, and sent the following note to Mr. Bonfils, the Confederate commercial agent at Cherbourg:
C. S. S. Alabama, Cherbourg, June 14, 1864.
To A. Bonfils, Esq., Cherbourg.
Sir: I hear that you were informed by the U. S. consul that the Kearsarge was to come to this port solely for the prisoners landed by me, and that she was to depart in twenty-four hours. I desire you to say to the U. S. consul that my intention is to fight the Kearsarge as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements. I hope these will not detain me more than until tomorrow evening, or after the morrow morning at furthest. I beg she will not depart before I am ready to go out. I have the honor to be very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. SEMMES,
Captain.
This is the “challenge,” in regard to which there was so much subsequent discussion. A copy thereof having been transmitted to Captain Winslow, he replied through the U. S. consul that he came to Cherbourg to fight, and had no intention of leaving.
The Kearsarge was built in Maine in the early part of the war, and cost about $275,000. The two vessels were very evenly matched in size and armament. The following table shows the measurements:
| Kearsarge. | Alabama. | ||
| Length of keel | 198½ | 210 | |
| Length over all | 232 | 220 | |
| Beam | 33 | 32 | |
| Depth | 16½ | 17 | |
| Engines (two in each) horse power | 400 | 300 | |
| Tonnage | 1031 | 1040 |
The Alabama carried eight guns: the hundred-pounder rifled Blakely pivoted forward; the eight-inch gun pivoted abaft the mainmast, and six 32-pounders in broadside. The Kearsarge carried seven guns: two eleven-inch smooth bore pivoted guns; one 28-pounder rifle, and four 32-pounders. The officers and men on the Kearsarge numbered one hundred and sixty-three; those on the Alabama about one hundred and fifty.
On Monday the Kearsarge ran into Dover for dispatches, and on Tuesday appeared off Cherbourg. Permission was obtained for boats to visit the shore, but the ship did not anchor in the harbor. The officers of the Kearsarge were very skeptical as to the desire of Captain Semmes for a battle, and a strict watch was kept at both entrances of the harbor, lest he should give them the slip, as he had the San Jacinto. The possibility of a night attack was also discussed, and preparations made for repelling it in case it should be suddenly thrust upon them.
More than a year previous while at the Azores the spare chain cable had been hung up and down upon the sides of the vessel as an additional protection to the engines when the coal bunkers were not full, and the whole enclosed by a covering of inch deal boards. This was done upon the suggestion of the executive officer, James S. Thornton, who had seen this device used by Admiral Farragut when running past the forts on the Mississippi to reach New Orleans. Captain Semmes says he knew nothing about this chain armor. If he did know about it, he evidently underrated its effectiveness.
The ports of the Kearsarge were let down, guns pivoted to starboard, and the entire battery loaded and made ready for instant service. Thursday, Friday and Saturday passed, but the Alabama failed to show herself outside the breakwater. Communication with the shore had been forbidden, and the only intelligence of events in the harbor other than what could be made out with the glass, came through the French pilots, who reported that the Alabama was taking in a large supply of coal, sending chronometers, specie and other valuables on shore, and that swords, boarding pikes and cutlasses were being sharpened.
A message from Minister Dayton was brought off by his son, who with difficulty obtained permission from the French admiral of the district to visit the Kearsarge. He told Captain Winslow that it was his opinion that Captain Semmes would not fight, but admitted that the general opinion in Cherbourg was contrary to his own. On returning to the shore, Mr. Dayton was informed by the admiral that Captain Semmes would go out to the attack the next morning, and he spent a considerable part of the night endeavoring to communicate this intelligence to Captain Winslow, but the vigilance of the Cherbourg police prevented him from accomplishing his object. He stayed in Cherbourg the next day, witnessed the battle from a convenient height, and telegraphed the result to his father in Paris.
Meanwhile the coaling of the Alabama was completed. Some of the officers were given a banquet by admiring friends in the town on Saturday night, and the party broke up with a promise to meet again in a similar way to celebrate the victory which none seemed to doubt would soon be theirs.
Sunday morning came. The weather was fine, the air slightly hazy and a light westerly breeze rippled the harbor. Sunday was esteemed the Alabama’s lucky day. On Sunday Captain Semmes had assumed the command of her and the Confederate ensign first appeared at her mast head. On Sunday many of her most important captures had been made. On Sunday she halted the mighty Ariel, and on Sunday she sunk the Hatteras. It was inevitable that there should grow up between decks a belief that any important enterprise begun on Sunday had the best chance of success. As a factor in the coming contest, a feeling in the minds of the men who were to do the fighting that a lucky day had been pitched upon for the battle, was not to be despised. And so on Sunday, June 19th, 1864, the Alabama sallied forth to meet the Kearsarge. The French iron clad frigate Couronne accompanied her to the three-mile limit in order to make sure that no fighting should take place in French waters. A private English steam yacht, the Deerhound, followed in the wake of the Couronne and took a position affording a good view of the battle, and several French pilot boats did likewise. The taller buildings, the rigging of vessels, the fortifications, and the heights above the town, were lined with people, many of whom had come from the interior and even from Paris to view the extraordinary spectacle. It is said that more than fifteen thousand people had gathered for this purpose. The great majority sympathised with the Alabama, but there was quite a contingent of Union adherents, among whom were the captains of the Tycoon and the Rockingham, with their families and crews, eager that vengeance at last might fall upon the destroyer.