About midnight on March 15th the sky being cloudy, the lookout called, “Sail ho! close aboard,” and a large ship passed by running on the opposite tack. The Alabama wheeled to follow, and succeeded in getting within range just before daybreak. A gunshot induced the chase to heave to. She proved to be the Punjaub, of Boston, on her way from Calcutta to London with a cargo of jute and linseed, which was properly certified as British property. She was released on a ransom bond, and took with her the last batch of prisoners, consisting of the crew of the John A. Parks. On the morning of March 23d the Morning Star was captured. She also was on her way from India to England with a neutral cargo, and not being able to find any flaw in her papers, Captain Semmes released her on a ransom bond. On the afternoon of the same day the Kingfisher, a whaling schooner, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was captured and burned. Two days later two large ships were seen approaching in close company. At the sight of the Alabama they separated and made more sail, but were both overhauled and proved to be American. The Charles Hill was bound from Liverpool to Argentine with salt. The Nora, also laden with salt, was bound from Liverpool to Calcutta. Probably both cargoes were actually owned by English citizens, but no proper proof of that fact being found among their papers, both vessels were condemned. The whole night and most of the following day were consumed in getting about forty tons of coal out of the prizes, after which they were burned. Nine men from these two ships enlisted on the Alabama.
On April 4th the Alabama chased a fine large ship all day, and, the wind having failed, sent a boarding crew in a whale boat to her at five o’clock p. m., although she was still two miles distant. Just before dark the ship was seen to turn her head toward the Alabama, and in a few hours she was alongside. The prize was the Louisa Hatch, of Rockland, Maine, with a cargo of coal, and bound from Cardiff, Wales, to the island of Ceylon. There was a certificate of foreign ownership among her papers, but not being sworn to, it was treated as so much waste paper. Coal on the coast of Brazil was worth seventeen dollars per ton. The Alabama’s supply of that necessary article was running low, but the Agrippina was expected soon, and the appointed rendezvous was close at hand. The character of the Agrippina, however, as a supply ship to the Alabama was becoming pretty well known, and it was stated that at least one Union captain had threatened to treat her as a hostile craft, notwithstanding her English flag. It was therefore quite possible that she might not be able to reach the place designated by Captain Semmes for the transfer of her cargo. On the other hand, Captain Semmes knew from experience that to transfer coal from the Louisa Hatch to the Alabama in the open sea would be a slow and difficult process in the best weather, and impossible in even a moderate wind.
Under the circumstances he determined to take the prize in tow and enter the port of Fernando de Noronha, an island belonging to Brazil, and used as a penal colony by that government, and run the risk of official interference. It was fortunate for the Alabama that the Louisa Hatch was not destroyed. The Agrippina was several weeks behind the appointed time In reaching the coast of Brazil. Besides her cargo of coal she had on board two more guns for the Alabama’s armament. Those guns were never delivered, and the Alabama went into her final combat with her original eight guns only.
Captain Semmes ran boldly into the harbor of Fernando de Noronha in the afternoon of April 10th, 1863, followed by the Louisa Hatch, and after dark began taking coal from the prize. The next day he visited the governor of the island, and found that official disposed to be very friendly. He took the Confederate captain on a tour of inspection about the island, and invited him to dine with the aristocracy of the place, consisting chiefly of gentlemanly forgers and other polite convicts, together with a few army officers from the battalion under his command. To the mind of the gentleman of Southern breeding the climax of incongruity was reached when he was introduced to the governor’s mulatto wife. The opinion of Captain Semmes in regard to the black and mixed inhabitants of Brazil may be gathered from the following excerpt from his memoirs:
The effete Portuguese race has been ingrafted upon a stupid, stolid Indian stock in that country. The freed negro is, besides, the equal of the white man, and as there seems to be no repugnance on the part of the white race—so called—to mix with the black race, and with the Indian, amalgamation will go on in that country, until a mongrel set of curs will cover the whole land. This might be a suitable field enough for the New England school-ma’am and carpet-bagger, but no Southern gentleman should think of mixing his blood or casting his lot with such a race of people.
The fiery “Southern gentleman” was, however, able for the time being to accommodate his feelings to the requirements of diplomacy, and his sentiments did not prevent him from making himself agreeable to the handsome mulatto lady and patting the kinky heads of her children. From this time forward the influence of the governor’s wife was thrown on the side of an exceedingly liberal interpretation of the law of nations, wherever the Confederate captain was concerned, that lady little imagining the storm which was gathering about her husband’s head, as a result of too much official complaisance.
The Alabama remained at this island until April 22d. As the anchorage was nothing but an open roadstead, it was soon found that the swell of the sea was too great to permit the two vessels to lie side by side without damage; and resort was had to the tedious operation of transferring the coal in boats, thus consuming five days. Meanwhile Captain Semmes was enjoying fat turkeys, fruit and bouquets sent him by the governor and his wife, or making agreeable visits to the government house and other places on the island.
April 15th two vessels were discovered to the southward, and soon after two whale boats were seen approaching from that direction. Each was in charge of the captain of one of the vessels in the offing, and they seemed somewhat apprehensive as to the company into which they had fallen. One of them hailed the Louisa Hatch and inquired her name and the port she was from, to which questions correct answers were given by Master’s Mate Fullam, the prize officer in charge. The other captain broke in by asking if the steamer in the harbor was not the Alabama.
“Certainly not,” was the reply, “she is the United States steamer Iroquois.”
“Have you any news of the Alabama?”