"First the mainmast and then the foremast came down with a crash, littering the decks with their gear. A shell carried death into the forecastle. One shot tore away the two forward stanchions of the pilot-house, and another one smashed through the roof, but neither Captain Williams nor I was injured. All of our boats and most of our upper works were literally shot to pieces.
"From first to last we must have been under the terrific fire for half an hour, but it seemed not more than a few minutes, and it really was with something of regret that I found the shots were falling astern. When we got up to the dock we found that five of our men had been killed and a dozen more or less injured. The ship had not been damaged at all, so far as speed and seaworthiness in ordinary weather were concerned, though she looked a wreck.
"The blockaders expected we would be laid up for a month. Consequently when we steamed out on the fourth night, after making only temporary repairs, they were not looking for us and we got through their line without much trouble.
"We refitted at Turk's Island, where we laid up for three weeks.
"I made two more trips to Charleston without any very exciting experiences, though we were fired on both times, and then sold the ship to an enterprising Englishman at Turk's Island. I made a comfortable fortune with her and sold her for more than I paid for her."
The Let Her B. was never captured, but the war closed the year after her arrival and upon its conclusion she was brought North and registered as a Canadian vessel at the Port of Pictou, Nova Scotia, and her name at the same time changed to Chicora.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] "Adventure Magazine," New York, Jan. 1911.