The Shenandoah, once the Sea King, was purchased by Captain Bullock, and placed under the command of Lieutenant-commanding J. J. Waddell, who fitted her for service under many difficulties at the barren island of Porto Santo, near Madeira. After experiencing great annoyances, through the activity of the American consul at Melbourne, Australia, Captain Waddell finally departed, and commenced an active and effective cruise against American shipping in the Okhotak Sea and Arctic Ocean. In August, 1865, hearing of the close of the war, he ceased his pursuit of United States commerce, sailed for Liverpool, England, and surrendered his ship to the English Government, which transferred it to the Government of the United States. The Shenandoah was a full-rigged ship of eight hundred tons, very fast under canvass. Her steam-power was merely auxiliary.
This was the last but not the first appearance of the Confederate flag in Great Britain; the first vessel of the Confederate Government which unfurled it there was the swift, light steamer Nashville, E. B. Pegram, commander. Having been constructed as a passenger-vessel, and mainly with reference to speed and the light draught suited to the navigation of the Southern harbors, she was quite too frail for war purposes and too slightly armed for combat.
On her passage to Europe and back, she, nevertheless, destroyed two merchantmen. Nearing the harbor on her return voyage, she found it blockaded, and a heavy vessel lying close on her track. Her daring commander headed directly for the vessel, and ran so close under her guns that she was not suspected in her approach, and had passed so far before the guns could be depressed to bear upon her that none of the shots took effect. Being little more than a shell, a single shot would have sunk her; and she was indebted to the address of her commander and the speed of his vessel for her escape. Wholly unsuited for naval warfare, this voyage terminated her career.
A different class of vessels than those adapted to the open sea was employed for coastwise cruising. In the month of July, 1864, a swift twin-screw propeller called the Atlanta, of six hundred tons burden, was purchased by the Secretary of the Navy, and fitted out in the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, for a cruise against the commerce of the Northern States. Commander J. Taylor Wood, an officer of extraordinary ability and enterprise, was ordered to command her, and her name was changed to "The Tallahassee." This extemporaneous man-of-war ran safely through the blockade, and soon lit up the New England coast with her captures, which consisted of two ships, four brigs, four barks, and twenty schooners. Great was the consternation among Northern merchants. The construction of the Tallahassee exclusively for steam made her dependent on coal; her cruise was of course brief, but brilliant while it lasted.
About the same time another fast double-screw propeller of five hundred and eighty-five tons, called the Edith, ran into Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Navy Department requiring her services, bought her and gave to her the name of "Chickamauga." A suitable battery was placed on board, with officers and crew, and Commander John Wilkinson, a gentleman of consummate naval ability, was ordered to command her. When ready for sea, he ran the blockade under the bright rays of a full moon. Strange to say, the usually alert sentinels neither hailed nor halted her. Like the Tallahassee, though partially rigged for sailing, she was exclusively dependent upon steam in the chase, escape, and in all important evolutions. She captured seven vessels, despite the above-noticed defects.
[Footnote 58: M. Bernard's "Neutrality of Great Britain during the American
Civil War.">[
CHAPTER XXXI.
Naval Affairs (concluded).—Excitement in the Northern States on the
Appearance of our Cruisers.—Failure of the Enemy to protect their
Commerce.—Appeal to Europe not to help the So-called "Pirates."—
Seeks Iron-plated Vessels in England.—Statement of Lord Russell.—
What is the Duty of Neutrals?—Position taken by President
Washington.—Letter of Mr. Jefferson.—Contracts sought by United
States Government.—Our Cruisers went to Sea unarmed.—Mr. Adams
asserts that British Neutrality was violated.—Reply of Lord
Russell.—Rejoinder of Mr. Seward.—Duty of Neutrals relative to
Warlike Stores.—Views of Wheaton; of Kent.—Charge of the Lord
Chief Baron in the Alexandra Case.—Action of the Confederate
Government sustained.—Antecedents of the United States
Government.—The Colonial Commissions.—Build and equip Ships in
Europe.—Captain Conyngham's Captures.—Made Prisoner.—
Retaliation.—Numbers of Captures.—Recognition of Greece.—
Recognition of South American Cruisers.—Chief Act of Hostility
charged on Great Britain by the United States Government.—The
Queen's Proclamation: its Effect.—Cause of the United States
Charges.—Never called us Belligerents.—Why not?—Adopts a
Fiction. The Reason.—Why denounce our Cruisers as "Pirates"?—
Opinion of Justice Greer.—Burning of Prizes.—Laws of Maritime
War.—Cause of the Geneva Conference.—Statement of American
Claims.—Allowance.—Indirect Damages of our Cruisers.—Ships
transferred to British Registers.—Decline of American Tonnage.—
Decline of Export of Breadstuffs.—Advance of Insurance.
The excitement produced in the Northern States by the effective operations of our cruisers upon their commerce was such as to receive the attention of the United States Government. Reasonably, it might have been expected that they would send their ships of war out on the high-seas to protect their commerce by capturing or driving off our light cruisers, but, instead of this, their fleets were employed in blockading the Confederate ports, or watching those in the West Indies, from which blockade-runners were expected to sail, and, by capturing which, either on the high-seas or at the entrance of a Confederate port, a harvest of prizes might be secured. For this dereliction of duty, in the failure to protect commerce, no better reason offers itself than greed and malignity. There was, however, in this connection, a more humiliating feature in the conduct of the United States Government.
While, from its State Department, the Confederacy was denounced as an insurrection soon to be suppressed, and the cruisers, regularly commissioned by the Confederate States, were called "pirates," diplomatic demands were made upon Great Britain to prevent the so-called "pirates" from violating international law, as if it applied to pirates. Appeals to that Government were also made to prevent the sale of the materials of war to the Confederacy, and thus indirectly to aid the United States in performing what, according to the representation, was a police duty, to suppress a combination of some evil-disposed persons—gallantly claiming that they, armed cap-a-pie, should meet their adversary in the list, he to be without helmet, shield, or lance.