The same cry came from the larboard rail, and I was sure that half of my men at least had escaped the disaster—but escaped into the enemy’s hands. To my amazement, however, little attention was paid to us. Her officers and men seemed too busy with the care of their ship for that.
Standing near her foremast with my men, I slowly took all this in, and came to the conclusion that the craft had broken her anchor chains and driven up the bay before the gale. All her courses had been due to attempts to prevent her wreck, and to get back to her anchorage, and not to her efforts to follow me. In fact, as I learned a little later, she had not seen us at all, and had no idea we were in that locality until she ran us down.
Soon an officer passed near us in the discharge of his duties.
“Where is your captain?” I asked.
“On the quarter-deck,” he replied. “Who are you?”
“One of the men you just ran down.”
“A Yankee officer?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know the inner harbor?”
“Yes.”