After the Albion Lincoln had been bonded for $18,000, we were kept very busy for several hours paroling prisoners, etc., and in the meanwhile a gale of wind was brewing, and the sea growing very rough. By six o'clock in the afternoon, the Lincoln was under way with the paroled prisoners; her master having been put under oath to shape the vessel's course for Fortress Monroe; and we applied the torch to the "Shooting Star." The burning ship was visible for many miles after we left her; and it was a strange, wild spectacle, that flaming beacon in the rough sea. The master of the "Albion Lincoln" shaped his course straight for New York. I hope his conscience has since reproached him for violating his oath, though given to a "rebel."
The gale increased during the night. Next day our course was shaped for Montauk Point; the scene of the previous day's operations having been in about latitude 40° and longitude 71°, or about fifty miles southeast of Sandy Hook. Montauk Point was sighted from aloft about mid-day, and the engines were slowed down, so as not to approach too near the land before night. We spoke several vessels during the day, all of them under the British flag. Toward night we steamed towards the land, with the expectation of finding smoother water, for the wind continued to blow from the southwest. At 5.45 p. m., we overhauled two schooners close in to the shore; one of them was the "Good-speed," from Boston to Philadelphia, in ballast; and the other, the "Otter Rock," from Bangor for Washington with a load of potatoes. Both were scuttled. Our boats did not get alongside the Chickamauga again till eight o'clock. The wind had been gradually veering round to the northeast, and the night was growing so dark and stormy, that I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the purpose previously entertained of entering Long Island Sound. The crew of the Good-speed profited by the darkness to escape in their boat to the land, a few miles distant.
We made an offing of thirty or forty miles during the night, and next morning captured the bark "Speedwell," in ballast from Boston to Philadelphia. The captain's sister and his child were on board his vessel, and represented to be sick. I could not reconcile it to my sense of humanity to subject the weaker sex to the probable dangers and certain hardships of confinement on board the Chickamauga. The Speedwell was therefore bonded for $18,000, and the captain—a very decent fellow by the way—sent on his voyage rejoicing; but the "recording angels" of the Northern press never placed this act to my credit.
The northeast gale, which had been brewing for some days, commenced in earnest toward the evening. After buffeting against it for two days, the necessity for making a port became apparent, our supply of coal beginning to get low. The course was, therefore, shaped for Bermuda, and we anchored off the bar at St. George's on Monday morning, November 7th.
The Governor of the island gave us a vast deal of trouble and annoyance, from this time until we finally left port. Lending apparently a willing ear to the representation of the American Consul, he would not permit us to enter the harbor until after a correspondence, in which I stated the fact that our engines needed repairs; but we lay outside twenty-four hours before even this permission was granted. He next forbade me to coal the ship. After a protest from me he relented so far, only, as to authorize a supply of coal, sufficient to carry the Chickamauga to the nearest Confederate port, although he had been officially informed that the vessel was regularly commissioned, and was then on a cruise. Although I was never favored with a sight of the correspondence, which must have been carried on between the American Consul and His Excellency on the subject, I am satisfied that the former presented a favorable case; but the Governor had no right to inquire into the antecedents of the Chickamauga, or to question the title by which she was held by the Confederate Government. She was, to all intents and purposes, as "bona fide" a man-of-war as the Florida, which had entered that same port, and been supplied with coal, and other necessaries, without question or molestation. But the fortunes of the Confederacy were now waning; and his Excellency wished perhaps—and may have received instructions—to keep on good terms with the winning side, and in disregard of the obligations of justice to the weaker party.[14] The result of his partial, and unfriendly course, was to bring the cruise of the Chickamauga to a speedy end; for it was impossible for her to keep the sea without a supply of fuel—steam, which is merely an auxiliary in a properly constituted man of war, being the Chickamauga's sole motive power. Many of our crew, too, were enticed to desert; but the efficiency of the vessel was rather increased than diminished by our getting rid of the vagabonds. They were for the most part "waifs and strays," of Wilmington, and "skulkers" from the army, who had been drafted from the Receiving ship. They profited by liberty on shore to secrete themselves, and many of them perished with the yellow fever, then prevailing in Bermuda.
We sailed from St. George's for Wilmington November 15th, showing our colors to several vessels on the way, all of which carried a foreign flag. American colors had for a long time become a rare sight upon the ocean, except when flying from the peak of a man-of-war. All of the vessels captured by the Chickamauga were either coasters, or traders to West India ports, and were scarcely off soundings on the American coast.[15] The Alabama and Florida had demonstrated what a vast amount of injury might be inflicted upon an enemy's commerce by a few swift cruisers; and there is no doubt that this number might have been increased to any reasonable extent, by proper management. No sensible individual, I presume, really attaches any importance to the ravings of a portion of the Northern press, during the war, against the "rebel pirates," and their depredations upon commerce. To destroy merchant vessels was not a pleasure, but it was a duty, and a matter of necessity, seeing that the Confederate ports were so closely blockaded as to render it absolutely impossible to send the prizes in for adjudication, and that all of the foreign powers prohibited the sending of captured vessels into their ports. The officers and crews attached to these "piratical vessels" would very gladly have carried or sent their prizes into a Confederate port; for in that case they would have been equally fortunate with their confreres of the United States Navy, whose pockets were filled to repletion with the proceeds of captured property belonging to Confederates, on land and sea.
We approached the coast in very thick weather on the night of the 18th. We could dimly discern the breakers ahead, and close aboard; but it was impossible to distinguish any landmark in so dense a fog. A boat was lowered therefore, and one of the bar pilots sent to examine nearer, but he returned on board in the course of an hour, with the report that he had pulled close in to the surf, but could recognize no object on the shore, although he had rowed some distance parallel to it, and as closely as he could venture. "Did you see no wrecks on the beach?" I inquired. "Yes, sir," he replied, "I saw three." "And how were they lying?" I asked. He stated that two of them were "broadside on" to the beach, and close together; and the third "bows on" to the beach, about a cable's length to the north of them. I was satisfied about our exact position at once, for while I was on the special service before alluded to, I had made a visit to Masonborough Inlet, on duty connected with the signal stations, and had noticed three wrecks in the positions described. The Chickamauga was put under low steam, with one watch at quarters, and we waited for daylight to cross the bar. As the fog lifted, shortly after sunrise, two of the blockading fleet were discovered on our port quarter, steaming towards us, as we were running down the coast towards Fort Fisher. When within long range they opened fire, which was returned by us. They were soon joined by a third blockader, and as we drew nearer to the bar, Fort Fisher took part in the engagement, and the blockaders hauled off. Shortly afterwards we crossed the bar, and anchored inside of the "Rip."
FOOTNOTES:
[12] It is very far from my intention, by these remarks, to condemn the depredations of the Confederate cruisers upon the Federal commerce, or the policy which dictated the fitting of them out. But there appears to me to be a wide difference between the destruction of ships and cargoes belonging to capitalists, who contributed by their means and influence to the support of the Federal Government, and the burning of fishing craft manned by poor men, who relied upon the "catch" of the trip for the means of feeding and clothing their families. But I will not expatiate upon the "sentiment" involved in the subject, for fear of incurring the reproach cast by Sir Peter Teazle upon that very humane and sentimental character, Joseph Surface, whose actions differed so widely from his words.
[13] From General Johnston's Narrative, pages 374, 375.