“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 assisting 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 ashore with the belief that the Alabama’s next move would be to throw a few shells 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.