HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE VANDERBILT.
The fame of the Alabama had preceded her, and her reception at the capital
of the colony was an ovation. One of the Cape Town newspapers thus
describes her arrival:
On the 27th of July no little excitement was caused in Cape Town on
the arrival of the coasting schooner Rover from Walwich Bay, with the
news that the Confederate steamer Alabama had actually made her
appearance about twenty-five miles off Green Point. * * * Nothing
further was heard, and it was thought by some that she had proceeded
on to the eastward; but on the afternoon of August 4 public
excitement was again aroused on the arrival of the schooner Atlas,
Capt. Boyce, from Saldanha Bay, with the intelligence that the
Alabama was lying snugly at anchor in that bay repairing. * * *
Captain Boyce also informed us that he had boarded the steamer and
was told by her commander that it was his intention to visit both
Table Bay and Simons Bay, and that he would be up almost as soon as
the Atlas. This bit of news put every one on the _qui vive_, and the
eagerly looked for arrival was the sole subject of talk. Tuesday
passed, but the Alabama had not made her appearance yet.
About noon on the following day (Wednesday) an American bark was
signalled as standing into Table Bay from the southwest. Almost
immediately after a bark-rigged steamer was made down as standing in
from the northeast.
The stoop of the Exchange and the space around the signalman's
office behind the Custom House, and all other places from which the
signals could be made out, were soon crowded; and when the name of
the steamer was made known, the excitement passed all bounds. The
news spread through Cape Town like wild fire:
"The Alabama is outside the bay, in chase of an American bark!"
Trading was forgotten--the busiest rushed out of their offices and
shops; every cab on the stand loaded regardless of municipal
regulations, and vanished up the Kloof road or down Somerset road.
Horsemen galloped about the street, and then spurred their steeds
right up the Lion's rump. Men, women and children were seized as with
frenzy, and rushed about here, there and everywhere, asking and
telling the most contradictory and unheard of things.
"They were firing at each other!--at close quarters!--the smoke and
roar of the battle could be quite distinctly heard from the
breakwater!"
And the shore from that point round to Camp's bay was, in an
incredibly short space of time, lined with no inconsiderable portion
of the madly excited citizens of Cape Town. * * * The fine bark Sea
Bride, having run the gauntlet of the Confederate fleet on the
Atlantic, had deemed her voyage to be approaching a happy end, and,
with full sail set, a favoring breeze and the star-spangled banner at
her peak, she sped onward like a thing of life and beauty, in full
view of the port to which she was bound. Dimly in the north she
descried a steamer standing likewise for the bay, and congratulated
herself on her good luck in arriving just in time to receive the
latest American news of Vicksburg or the Rappahanock by the English
mail. Fast as the bark went, the steamer sped faster still, and in a
very unaccountable manner seemed to be bearing down upon the Yankee.
In less than half an hour the suspicious craft had fairly overhauled
her, and, with the dreadful Confederate flag run up at the peak, left
little doubt that the Sea Bride was to become the prey of the
redoubtable cruiser, the Alabama. But still, as it appeared to us who
witnessed the whole scene from Green Point shore, the Northerner
determined to strain every nerve to escape his foe and reach the
neutral waters within the charmed league from shore.
The demand from the steamer to heave to was answered by a defiant
pressing on of every stitch of canvas, and a still more jaunty
display of the stars and stripes at the mizzen. The chase was then
continued for a few seconds longer; but at no time was the issue of
it uncertain. The Alabama seemed to cut the waters with prodigious
speed, and a blank charge from one of her big guns brought the Sea
Bride to a full stop. The Confederate, puffing off her steam in
enormous volumes, moved gently round her fated victim, and seemed to
gaze upon her with the complacent satisfaction a cat might show after
the seizure of a tempting mouse, or a hawk which in swift descent had
pounced on its unsuspecting prey. A boat was sent to go on board the
bark--a few minutes longer and it was impossible to judge what was
happening; until at last the stars and stripes were struck, and the
Northern bark Sea Bride was manifestly proclaimed a Confederate
prize.
When the Alabama anchored in the bay, she was surrounded by boats, the
occupants all eager to view ship, officers and crew; and the Confederates
found themselves the heroes of the hour. The history of their captures and
the battle with the Hatteras had to be related over and over again, with
various grades of embellishment, according to the veracity or imagination
of the narrator. The newspaper account continues:
Next day the excitement in town was if possible still greater. The
day was to all intents and purposes a general holiday. The weather
was favorable, charming; the bay was as smooth and sparkling as a
sheet of glass, and every man, woman and child in Cape Town seemed to
have made up their minds to get on board the Alabama in some; way or
other. * * * The Alabama took in and discharged a living freight at
the rate of about sixty in the minute from eight o'clock in the
morning till four or five in the afternoon. * * * The boatmen
quarreled, roared and swore, as their eager living cargoes tumbled
in and out of large boats into little ones, utterly reckless of their
lives in their mad haste to get into the ship. The ladies' crinolines
blocked the ladders and gangways. * * * The great center of
attraction was Captain Semmes. "Where is he?" "Might we just have a
look at him?" "Do let us down," "Do make a little room," begged and
prayed ladies and gentlemen all day long at the head of the companion
ladder leading down to the cabin.
Captain Semmes seems to have borne his honors with a becoming grace, and
to have made a good impression upon his army of visitors. Bartelli, the
captain's steward, acted as master of ceremonies, and refused to admit any
one until his or her card had first been sent in, and he had very
diplomatic ways of getting rid of people who did not impress him as being
of the proper social standing. Invitations to make visits on shore were
showered upon the officers and some of them were accepted. Quires of paper
were consumed in autographs, and the officers posed for their photographs
on deck.
The Alabama remained here and at Simons Bay until August 15th under
various pretexts of needed repairs. The United States consul made the
claim that the Sea Bride had been captured within the marine league, and
also that while in charge of the prize crew she had approached within a
mile and a half of the shore. On the 8th the Tuscaloosa came into Simons
Bay, and the consul protested that her proper name was the Conrad, that
she had never been condemned in an admiralty court, that her original
cargo of wool was still on board, and that the mere fact that two brass
guns and a dozen men had been transferred to her decks could not deprive
her of the character of a prize, which it would be unlawful to bring into
a British port. Governor Wodehouse decided both of these cases in favor of
the Confederates, but having reported the facts to the British government,
his action in the case of the Tuscaloosa was disapproved. Accordingly,
when that vessel again appeared in port he caused her to be seized. This
proceeding was also disapproved at London, on the ground that having once
found an asylum in a British port, she had a right to expect similar
treatment in the future. This diplomatic controversy was many months in
progress, and before a final decision was arrived at there were no
Confederate officers at the Cape to whom she could be delivered. After the
war she was transferred to her original owners.
August 9th the Alabama steamed out from Cape Town, bound for Simons Bay.
As she passed out of the harbor two American ships were sighted by the
signalman on shore. But they were warned of their danger by some boats,
and, the weather being foggy, they got inside the marine league without
being seen by the Confederates. The same day the Alabama captured the bark
Martha Wenzel near the entrance to False Bay, but, having taken his
bearings, Captain Semmes decided that the capture had been made in British
waters, and accordingly released her, much to the joy of her commander,
who had expected to witness her destruction.
August 28th the Alabama arrived at Angra Pequena Bay, on the west coast of
Africa, more than a hundred miles north of the northern boundary of the
Cape Colony, whither the Tuscaloosa and Sea Bride had preceded her. The
harbor was good, but the country was a rainless, sandy, rock-bound desert,
without so much as a shrub or a blade of grass; and no nation had as yet
set up any claim to it.
At last Captain Semmes had found a port into which he could take a prize.
The few naked and half starved Hottentots who appeared made no
remonstrance against the violation of neutrality.
The Sea Bride and her cargo were sold to a Cape Town merchant for about
one-third of their value, he to take the risk arising from the fact that
she had never been condemned in a prize court, and the money was paid and
possession given him at this secluded place. Here also was deposited the
wool from the Tuscaloosa, to be picked up by another speculator, who was
to ship it to Europe and credit the Confederate government with two-thirds
of the proceeds. Two months later the Vanderbilt visited Angra Pequena and
captured there the British bark Saxon, having a large part of the wool on
board, and sent her to a prize court in the United States.
The United States consul at Cape Town, having heard of the Alabama's
little mark down sales, protested against the vending of any of the goods
within the colony by the purchasers. After much delay and difficulty the
cargo of the Sea Bride was peddled out in Madagascar and elsewhere, and
the vessel herself turned adrift--for a consideration--with the
understanding that certain persons should pick her up as a derelict.
When the Alabama returned to Simons Town, she found the Vanderbilt had
been there, and had, moreover, taken in all the coal which was to be had
in the place. The Vanderbilt was an enormous consumer of coal, a fact
which interfered considerably with her movements in a quarter of the world
where coal was so high in price and so uncertain in supply. Lieutenant
Baldwin had fairly turned the tide of popular opinion in his favor by his
magnanimous conduct in the case of a Dutch bark, which the Vanderbilt
found in a disabled state a hundred miles from the shore, and which she
towed safely into a harbor. Lieutenant Baldwin declined to accept any part
of the salvage which he might have claimed, and although he was delayed
some twenty-four hours in his chase of Confederate cruisers by the
incident, the improved feeling toward the United States government in
South Africa was of much greater value. The three months rule was so far
relaxed that the Vanderbilt coaled three times in British ports within
three months, instead of only once, as the rule prescribed. Permission to
coal a fourth time was, however, denied.
Not being able to procure any coal at Simons Bay, Captain Semmes had a
supply sent around from Cape Town in a merchant vessel. Meanwhile the crew
were permitted to have shore liberty, and nearly the entire number,
including the petty officers, proceeded to get as drunk as possible. A
week was spent in getting the unruly fellows on board and coaling ship. On
September 24th, finding himself still fourteen hands short, Captain Semmes
shipped eleven new ones at Simons Bay, although this was in direct
violation of the British neutrality act. The Vanderbilt was reported not
far outside the bay, but the Alabama succeeded in avoiding her, and
steamed out to sea the same night in the teeth of a southeast gale.