DODGING THE SAN JACINTO.
To his surprise Captain Semmes found the whole town expecting him,
although this was the first port he had entered since leaving Terceira two
months previous. The Agrippina had been in this port a week, and her
master, Captain McQueen, had not been able to resist the temptation to
boast of his connection with the Alabama, and aver that his cargo of coal
was intended for her bunkers. It had, moreover, been whispered about that
the Agrippina had guns and ammunition under the coal, which were intended
for the Confederate cruiser, and also that Captain McQueen had stated that
he expected to receive some further instructions as to his movements from
the British consul, Mr. Lawless. Diplomatic relations between Great
Britain and the United States were very much strained at this time, and
the consul was much incensed because his name had been connected with the
Alabama in this public manner. When cross-questioned by the consul,
McQueen became frightened and denied that his cargo was for the Alabama,
but admitted that he had said that he took a cargo to Terceira for her,
and also that he expected to receive a letter from the owners of the
Agrippina in care of the consul. Mr. Lawless warned him against engaging
in such illegal traffic under the British flag, and having satisfied
himself that the Agrippina's cargo was really intended for the Confederate
cruiser and that the Alabama might soon be expected in port, he laid the
whole matter before the governor of the island. That official did not seem
at all surprised, took the matter very coolly, and stated that if the
Alabama came in she would receive the ordinary courtesies accorded to
belligerent cruisers in French ports.
When the Alabama did come in and Captain Semmes became acquainted with the
real state of affairs, Captain McQueen spent a bad quarter of an hour in
his presence, and the same day the Agrippina hastily got up her anchor
and went to sea. Seven days was long enough for McQueen's chatter to be
wafted many a league even without the aid of the telegraph, and the United
States consul, Mr. John Campbell, had not been idle.
Captain Semmes applied to the governor for permission to land his
prisoners, consisting of Captain Lincoln and family, of the T. B. Wales,
ex-Consul Fairfield and family, Captain Mellen, of the Levi Starbuck, and
forty-three seamen belonging to the two vessels. No objection being
offered, the prisoners went ashore and sought the friendly offices of the
United States consul to assist them in reaching their own country.
It was just a year since Captain Semmes, then in command of the Sumter,
had been blockaded in this very port by the United States gunboat
Iroquois, and had adroitly given the latter the slip. Now, in a much
better vessel than the Sumter, he felt able to defy foes like the
Iroquois.
But a surprise was brewing for him between decks.
After dark George Forrest swam ashore and bribed a boatman to put him
aboard his vessel again with five gallons of a vile brand of whisky. His
fellow conspirators pulled him and his purchase in through a berth deck
port, and the crew proceeded to hold high carnival. When the watch below
was called the boatswain was knocked down with a belaying pin and an
officer who tried to quell the disturbance was saluted with oaths and
every kind of missile within reach.
The captain was immediately notified, and ordered a beat to quarters. The
officers appeared armed and charged forward, assisted by the sober portion
of the crew, and after a sharp fight succeeded in securing the worst of
the mutineers. Captain Semmes had the drunken sailors drenched with
buckets of cold water until they begged for mercy. Forrest was identified
by a guard from the shore as the man who bought the liquor, and he was
placed in double irons and under guard.
Captain Semmes had said to people on shore that the Alabama would go to
sea during the night. But she did not go, and early the next morning the
stars and stripes were floating outside the harbor at the masthead of the
steam sloop San Jacinto, mounting fourteen guns.
"We paid no sort of attention to the arrival of this old wagon of a ship,"
writes Semmes in his memoirs. Nevertheless, it must be recorded that he
beat to quarters and kept the Alabama close under the guns of the French
fort in the harbor.[2] He might be able to outsail the San Jacinto, but he
knew very well that one or two of her broadsides would be very apt to send
the Alabama to the bottom, in case Captain Ronckendorff should take it
into his head to violate the neutrality of a French port. Moreover, his
crew were hardly in a condition either of mind or body to meet a
determined enemy.
The captain of the San Jacinto refused to receive a pilot or come to an
anchor, because his vessel would then come within the twenty-four hour
rule, and the Alabama would be permitted that length of time to get out of
reach when she chose to depart, before the San Jacinto, according to
international law governing neutral ports, would be permitted to follow
her. During the day Governor Cande sent a letter to Captain Ronckendorff
warning him that he must either come to anchor and submit to the
twenty-four hour rule, or keep three miles outside the points which formed
the entrance to the harbor. Being well aware that the governor had
correctly stated the law governing the case, Captain Ronckendorff readily
promised acquiescence.
Public sentiment in Martinique among the white population was almost
unanimously favorable to the South, and while the law was thus enforced to
the letter as against the Federals, practically every white person in the
port stood ready to give Captain Semmes any assistance which might enable
him to escape from his ponderous adversary. The crew of the Alabama spent
the 19th of November in various stages of recovery from the debauch and
fight of the previous night, and repairing and painting occupied the time
of some of them. In the afternoon a French naval officer went on board and
furnished Captain Semmes with an accurate chart of the harbor. Towards
night the captain of the Hampden, an American merchant ship lying in the
harbor near the Alabama, in company with Captain Mellen, were rowed out to
the San Jacinto, bearing a letter from the United States consul to Captain
Ronckendorff, informing him in regard to the situation ashore. The news of
their departure was not long in reaching the Alabama. Suspecting that some
code of signals was being arranged, Captain Semmes determined to take time
by the forelock. He asked for a government pilot, who was promptly
furnished, and just at dusk the Alabama hoisted anchor and steamed toward
the inner harbor. The evening was cloudy. Darkness came on early, and rain
began to fall. All lights on board were extinguished or covered, and
having passed out of sight of the Hampden, the course was altered and the
Alabama ran out through the most southerly channel.
When the captain of the Hampden returned to his vessel a little after
eight o'clock he immediately sent up three rockets in the direction in
which the Alabama was supposed to have gone. The San Jacinto at once ran
under a full head of steam to the south side of the harbor, and searched
up and down with her crew at quarters until after midnight. At daybreak
two of her boats were taken on board, one of which had spent the night in
the southern side of the harbor and the other in the northern side. Nobody
had seen anything of the Alabama.
People on shore solemnly assured the San Jacinto's officers that the
Alabama had not escaped, but was hiding in some obscure part of the bay,
to await the departure of her enemy. The whole harbor was therefore
explored by the San Jacinto's boats, establishing the fact that beyond a
doubt the Alabama was gone.
In a postscript to his report to the navy department Captain Ronckendorff
says: "I could find out nothing of the future movements of the Alabama."
Nor could anybody else. That was a secret which was kept locked in the
breast of her commander. It was very rarely that the lieutenants in her
own ward room knew where the vessel would be twenty-four hours ahead.