The task of getting the crew on board the Alabama proved to be a formidable one. Few could be persuaded to abandon their debauch by any persuasion or threat of punishment. Most of them were arrested by the police and delivered to the Alabama’s officers in all stages of intoxication. Two of them even attempted to escape after getting on board, by jumping into a shore boat. Captain Semmes gives the following account of this occurrence:
A couple of them, not liking the appearance of things on board, jumped into a dug-out alongside, and seizing the paddles from the negroes, shoved off in great haste, and put out for the shore. It was night, and there was a bright moon lighting up the bay. A cutter was manned as speedily as possible, and sent in pursuit of the fugitives. Jack had grog and Moll ahead of him, and irons and a court-martial behind him, and he paddled like a good fellow. He had gotten a good start before the cutter was well under way, but still the cutter, with her long sweeping oars, was rather too much for the dug-out, especially as there were five oars to two paddles. She gained and gained, coming nearer and nearer, when presently the officer of the cutter heard one of the sailors in the dug-out say to the other:
“I’ll tell you what it is, Bill, there’s too much cargo in this here d—d craft, and I’m going to lighten ship a little.”
And at the same instant he saw the two men lay in their paddles, seize one of the negroes, and pitch him head foremost overboard! They then seized their paddles again, and away darted the dug-out with renewed speed.
Port Royal Bay is a large sheet of water, and is, besides, as every reader of Marryatt’s incomparable tales knows, full of ravenous sharks. It would not do, of course, for the cutter to permit the negro either to drown or to be eaten by the sharks, and so, as she came up with him, sputtering and floundering for his life, she was obliged to “back of all” and take him in. The sailor who grabbed at him first missed him, and the boat shot ahead of him, which rendered it necessary for her to turn and pull back a short distance before she could rescue him. This done, he was flung into the bottom of the cutter, and the pursuit renewed. By this time the dug-out had gotten even a better start than she had had at first, and the two fugitive sailors, encouraged by the prospect of escape, were paddling more vigorously than ever. Fast flew the dugout, but faster flew the cutter. Both parties now had their blood up, and a more beautiful and exciting moonlight race has not often been seen. We had watched it from the Alabama, until in the gloaming of the night it had passed out of sight. We had seen the first manœuvre of the halting, and pulling back of the cutter, but did not know what to make of it. The cutter began now to come up again with the chase. She had no musket on board, or in imitation of the Alabama, she might have “hove the chase to” with a blank cartridge or a ball. When she had gotten within a few yards of her a second time, in went the paddles again, and overboard went the other negro! and away went the dugout! A similar delay on the part of the cutter ensued as before, and a similar advantage was gained by the dug-out! But all things come to an end, and so did this race. The cutter finally captured the dug-out, and brought back Tom Bowse and Bill Bower to their admiring shipmates on board the Alabama. This was the only violation of neutrality I was guilty of in Port Royal—chasing and capturing a neutral craft in neutral waters.
The recalcitrant sailors protested that they had no intention of deserting the ship or of drowning the negroes; they only wanted to say goodby to their feminine acquaintances ashore—and so got off with a reprimand and a night spent in irons.