LAST DAYS ON THE 'D----N.'
As no vessel had succeeded since the blockade was established in getting
into Savannah (a large and flourishing town in Georgia, situated a few
miles up a navigable river of the same name), where there was a famous
market for all sorts of goods, and where plenty of the finest sea-island
cotton was stored ready for embarkation, and as the southern port pilots
were of opinion that all that was required to ensure success was an
effort to obtain it, I undertook to try if we could manage to get the
'D----n' in.
The principal difficulty we had to contend with was that the Northerners
had possession of a large fortification called Pulaski, which, being
situated at the entrance of the river, commanded the passage up to the
town.
To pass this place in the night seemed easy work enough, as it would be
hard for the sentry to make a vessel out disguised as we were; but to
avoid the shoals and sand-banks at the river's mouth, in a pitch-dark
night, seemed to me, after carefully studying the chart, to be a most
difficult matter. This, however, was the pilot's business; all we
captains had to do was to avoid dangers from the guns of ships and
forts; or, if we could not avoid them, to stand being fired at.
The pilot we had engaged was full of confidence; so much so, that he
refused to have any payment for his services until he had taken us in
and out safely. I may as well mention that there were few if any
blockading vessels off Savannah river, the Northerners having perfect
confidence, I presume, in Fort Pulaski and the shoals which surrounded
the entrance of the river being sufficient to prevent any attempt at
blockade-running succeeding. The lights in the ship off Port Royal, a
small harbour in the hands of the Northern Government, a few miles from
the entrance to Savannah, were as bright as in the time of peace, and
served as a capital guide to the river's mouth. After two days' run from
Nassau we arrived without accident to within twenty miles of the low
land through which the Savannah river runs, and at dark steered for the
light-vessel lying off Port Royal. Having made it out, in fact steaming
close up to it, we shaped our course for Fort Pulaski, using the light
as a point of departure, the distance by the chart being twelve miles.
We soon saw its outlines looming through the darkness ahead, and
formidable though it looked, it caused me no anxiety, compared with the
danger we seemed to be in from the shoalwater and breakers being all
around us. However, the pilot who had charge of such matters seemed
comfortable enough.
So we went cautiously along, and in ten minutes would have been past
danger, at all events from the batteries on the fort, when one of the
severest storms I ever remember of wind and rain, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, came on, and enveloped us in a most impenetrable
darkness. Knowing that we were surrounded by most dangerous shoals, and
being then in only fifteen feet water, I felt our position to be a very
perilous one. The pilot had by this time pretty well lost his head; in
fact, it would have puzzled anyone to say where we were. So we turned
round and steered out to sea again, by the same way we had come in; and
when we were as near as we could guess twenty miles from land, we let go
our anchor in fifteen fathoms water.
Then came on a heavy gale of wind accompanied by a thick fog, which
lasted three days and nights. I never in my life passed such an
unpleasant time, rolling our gunnels under, knowing that we were
drifting, our anchor having dragged, but in what direction it was
difficult to judge; unable to cook, through the sea we had shipped
having put our galley-fire out; and, worse than all, burning quantities
of coal, as we had to keep steam always well up, ready for anything that
might happen.
One day it cleared up for half an hour about noon, and we managed to get
meridian observations, which showed us that we had drifted thirty miles
of latitude, but we still remained in ignorance of our longitude. On the
fourth day the gale moderated, the weather cleared up, and we
ascertained our position correctly by observations.
When it was dark we steered for the light-vessel off Port Royal,
meaning, as before, to make her our point of departure for the entrance
of the river. But we went on and on, and we could not see the glimmer of
a light or even anything of a vessel (we found out afterwards that the
light-ship had been blown from her moorings in the gale). This was a
nice mess. The pilot told us that to attempt to run for the entrance
without having the bearings of the light to guide us would have been
perfect madness. We had barely enough coals to take us back to Nassau,
and if we had remained dodging about, waiting for the light-vessel to be
replaced, we should have been worse off for fuel, of which we had so
little that if we had been chased on our way back we should certainly
have been captured.
So we started for Nassau, keeping well in shore on the Georgia and
Florida coast. Along this coast there were many small creeks and rivers
where blockade-running in small crafts, and even boats, was constantly
carried on, and where the Northerners had stationed several brigs and
schooners of war, who did the best they could to stop the traffic. Many
an open boat has run over from the northernmost island of the Bahamas
group, a distance of fifty miles, and returned with one or two bales of
cotton, by which her crew were well remunerated.
We had little to fear from sailing men-of-war, as the weather was calm
and fine, so we steamed a few miles from the shore, all day passing
several of them, just out of range of their guns. One vessel tried the
effect of a long shot, but we could afford to laugh at her.
The last night we spent at sea was rather nervous work. We had reduced
our coals to about three-quarters of a ton, and had to cross the Gulf
Stream at the narrow part between the Florida coast and the Bahamas, a
distance of twenty-eight miles, where the force of the current is four
knots an hour. Our coals were soon finished. We cut up the available
spars, oars, &c., burnt a hemp cable (that by the way made a capital
blaze), and just managed to fetch across to the extreme western end of
the group of islands belonging to Great Britain, where we anchored.
We couldn't have steamed three miles further. On the wild spot where we
anchored there was fortunately a small heap of anthracite coal, that
probably had been part of the cargo of some wreck, of which we took as
much as would carry us to Nassau, and arrived there safely. Thus the
attempt to get into Savannah was a failure. It was tried once afterwards
by a steamer which managed to get well past the fort, but which stuck on
a sand-bank shortly after doing so, and was captured in the morning.
It is not my intention to inflict on my readers any more anecdotes of my
own doings in the 'D----n;' suffice it to say that I had the good luck
to make six round trips in her, in and out of Wilmington, and that I
gave her over to the chief officer and went home to England with my
spoils. On arriving at Southampton, the first thing I saw in the 'Times'
was a paragraph headed, 'The Capture of the "D----n."' Poor little
craft! I learned afterwards how she was taken, which I will relate, and
which will show that she died game.
The officer to whom I gave over charge was as fine a specimen of a
seaman as well can be imagined, plucky, cool, and determined, and by the
way he was a bit of a medico, as well as a sailor; for by his beneficial
treatment of his patients we had very few complaints of sickness on
board. As our small dispensary was close to my cabin, I used to hear the
conversation that took place between C---- and his patients. I will
repeat one.
_C._ 'Well, my man, what's the matter with you?'
_Patient._ 'Please, sir, I've got pains all over me.'
_C._ 'Oh, all over you, are they; that's bad.'
Then, during the pause, it was evident something was being mixed up, and
I could hear C---- say: 'Here, take this, and come again in the
evening.' (Exit patient.) Then C. said to himself: 'I don't think he'll
come again; he has got two drops of the croton. Skulking rascal, pains
all over him, eh!' I never heard the voice of that patient again; in
fact, after a short time we had no cases of sickness on board. C----
explained to me that the only medicine he served out, as he called it,
was _croton oil_; and that none of the crew came twice for treatment.
Never having run through the blockade as the commander of a vessel
(though he was with me all the time and had as much to do with our luck
as I had), he was naturally very anxious to get safely through. There
can be no doubt that the vessel had lost much of her speed, for she had
been very hardly pushed on several occasions. This told sadly against
her, as the result will show. On the third afternoon after leaving
Nassau she was in a good position for attempting the run when night came
on. She was moving stealthily about waiting for the evening, when
suddenly, on the weather, which had been hitherto thick and hazy,
clearing up, she saw a cruiser unpleasantly near to her, which bore down
under steam and sail, and it soon became probable that the poor little
'D----n's' twin screws would not save her this time, well and often as
they had done so before.
The cruiser, a large full-rigged corvette, was coming up hand over hand,
carrying a strong breeze, and the days of the 'D----n' seemed numbered,
when C---- tried a ruse worthy of any of the heroes of naval history.
The wind, as I said, was very fresh, with a good deal of sea running.
On came the cruiser till the 'D----n' was almost under her bows, and
shortened sail in fine style. The moment the men were in the rigging,
going aloft to furl the sails, C---- put his plan into execution. He
turned his craft head to wind, and steamed deliberately past the
corvette at not fifty yards' distance. She, with great way on, went
nearly a quarter of a mile before she could turn.
I have it from good authority that the order was not given to the
marines on the man-of-war's poop to fire at the plucky little craft who
had so fairly out-manoeuvred the cruiser, for out-manoeuvred she was to
all intents and purposes. The two or three guns that had been cast loose
during the chase had been partially secured, and left so while the men
had gone aloft to furl the sails, so that not a shot was fired as she
went past. Shortly after she had done so, however, the cruiser opened
fire with her bow guns, but with the sea that was running it could do no
harm, being without any top weights. The 'D----n' easily dropped the
corvette with her heavy spars astern, and was soon far ahead; so much so
that when night came on the cruiser was shut out of sight in the
darkness.
After this the 'D----n' deserved to escape, but it was otherwise fated.
The next morning when day broke she was within three miles of one of the
new fast vessels, which had come out on her trial trip, flying light,
alas! She had an opportunity of trying her speed advantageously to
herself. She snapped up the poor 'D----n' in no time, and took her into
the nearest port. I may mention that the 'D----n' and her captain were
well known and much sought after by the American cruisers. The first
remark that the officer made on coming aboard her was: 'Well, Captain
Roberts, so we have caught you at last!' and he seemed much disappointed
when he was told that the captain they so particularly wanted went home
in the last mail. The corvette which had chased and been cheated by the
'D----n' the day before was lying in the port into which she was taken.
Her captain, when he saw the prize, said: 'I must go on board and shake
hands with the gallant fellow who commands that vessel!' and he did so,
warmly complimenting C---- on the courage he had shown, thus proving
that he could appreciate pluck, and that American naval men did not look
down on blockade-running as a grievous sin, hard work as it gave them in
trying to put a stop to it. They were sometimes a little severe on men
who, after having been fairly caught in a chase at sea, wantonly
destroyed their compasses, chronometers, &c., rather than let them fall
into the hands of the cruiser's officers. I must say that I was always
prepared, had I been caught, to have made the best of things, to have
given the officers who came to take possession all that they had fairly
gained by luck having declared on their side, and to have had a farewell
glass of champagne with the new tenant at the late owner's expense. The
treatment received by persons captured engaged in running the blockade
differed very materially. If a _bonâ fide_ American man-of-war of the
old school made the capture, they were always treated with kindness by
their captors. But there were among the officers of vessels picked up
hurriedly and employed by the Government a very rough lot, who rejoiced
in making their prisoners as uncomfortable as possible. They seemed to
have only one good quality, and this was that there were among them many
good freemasons, and frequently a prisoner found the advantage of having
been initiated into the brotherhood.
The 'D----n's' crew fell into very good hands, and till they arrived at
New York were comfortable enough; but the short time they spent in
prison there, while the vessel was undergoing the mockery of a trial in
the Admiralty Court, was far from pleasant. However, it did not last
very long--not more than ten days; and as soon as they were free most of
them went back to Nassau or Bermuda ready for more work. C---- came to
England and told me all his troubles. Poor fellow! I am afraid his
services were not half appreciated as they ought to have been, for
success, in blockade-running as in everything else, is a virtue, whereas
bad luck, even though accompanied with the pluck of a hero, is always
more or less a crime not to be forgiven.