“Yes; we have heard of her being in the West Indies, at Jamaica and Costa Rica.”
The prize master then engaged them in conversation, with the idea of detaining them until the Alabama could get up steam, which he felt sure would be done with all speed. Considerably reassured, the whaling captains accepted an invitation to go on board the prize, and had approached within a few yards when the officer in the forward boat uttered a cry of alarm.
“Give way, men; give way for your lives,” he shouted, and hastily turned the boat’s head toward the shore.
To the frantic appeals of the other captain to explain his conduct he would only point to the mizzen rigging of the ship and ejaculate:
“There! there!”
Closer inspection revealed a small Confederate flag which a puff of wind had just displayed. The fears of the excited captain were soon realized. The Alabama steamed out of the anchorage and before dark had fired the bark Lafayette (the second vessel of this name destroyed) and returned with the Kate Cory in tow. Captain Semmes says that these two ships were captured outside the three-mile limit, but the crews of the captured vessels assert that they were clearly in Brazilian waters. The easy going governor contented himself with a written statement of Captain Semmes that the captures were made outside of the marine league. Fullam wrote in his diary:
Whilst at Bahia I was shown a letter from the master of one of the whaling barks to an agent, in which he wrote that he would spare no money or time to follow to the uttermost ends of the earth, and bring to justice the man who had so cruelly deceived him. This sentence had reference to my denial of the Alabama and the substitution of the U. S. steamer Iroquois for that of C. S. steamer Alabama. The ingratitude of some people!
The prisoners were paroled and sent to Pernambuco in a Brazilian schooner. Captain Semmes waited a week longer for the Agrippina, and then steamed out into the track of commerce once more.