During the month of January, 1864, while my ship was in St. George,
Bermuda, loading for Wilmington, I met frequently an attractive young
Virginian named Selden, of the Confederate Signal Service, who had been
detailed as signal officer on the fine new steamer _Emily of London_;
and I became most favorably impressed with this courteous Christian
gentleman and with the superior qualities of his beautiful vessel. All
of her appointments were first-class, and her equipment was superior
to that of any other blockade runner of the fleet. As she lies now in
sight of my cottage on Wrightsville Beach, visible at every turn of the
tide, I often wonder what became of Selden, for I never learned his
fate after the stranding and loss of his fine ship a mile or so above
the wreck of the _Fannie and Jennie_, on the same night, February 9,
1864.
The only particulars of the stranding of the _Emily_ are embodied in
the official report of her discovery on the beach by Captain Crosby, of
the Federal cruiser _Florida_, who found her ashore between Masonboro
Inlet and Wrightsville Beach after her captain and crew had abandoned
her. She was then set on fire by bombshells from the cruiser _Florida_,
a loud explosion on board of the wrecked vessel indicating that her
cargo was probably partly composed of explosives for the Confederacy.
Captain Crosby adds that she was a new and very handsome steamer,
expensively fitted out. It is presumed that the _Emily's_ captain and
crew, numbering about fifty men, succeeded in reaching the protection
of the Confederates.