BERMUDA
Yellow fever—The _Night Hawk_—A nervous pilot—Under heavy
fire—Aground on Wilmington bar—Boarded by the Federals—The
_Night Hawk_ set on fire—An Irishman's ruse—To the rescue
of the _Night Hawk_—The close of her career—A hard week's
work—Fever and ague—A waste of expensive material—A famous
Confederate spy—A diabolical idea.
We had in the early part of the war a depôt at Bermuda as well as at
Nassau, and Frank Hurst was at that time my brother agent there. I went
there twice, once in the first _Banshee_, and once from Halifax, after a
trip to Canada in order to recruit from a bad attack of yellow fever;
but I never liked Bermuda, and later on we transferred Hurst and his
agency to Nassau, which was more convenient in many ways and nearer
Wilmington. Moreover I had to face the contingency, which afterwards
occurred, of the Atlantic ports being closed and our being driven to the
Gulf. The Mudians, however, were a kind, hospitable lot, and made a
great deal of us, and there was a much larger naval and military society
stationed there than in Nassau. They had suffered from a severe outbreak
of yellow fever, and the 3rd Buffs, who were in garrison at the time,
had been almost decimated by it.
It was on my second trip to the island that one of the finest boats we
ever possessed, called the _Night Hawk_, came out, and I concluded to
run in with her. She was a new side-wheel steamer of some 600 tons
gross, rigged as a fore and aft schooner, with two funnels, 220 feet
long, 21-1/2 feet beam, and 11 feet in depth; a capital boat for the
work, fast, strong, of light draught, and a splendid sea-boat—a great
merit in a blockade-runner that sometimes has to be forced in all
weathers. The _Night Hawk's_ career was a very eventful one, and she
passed an unusually lively night off Fort Fisher on her first attempt.
Soon after getting under weigh our troubles began. We ran ashore outside
Hamilton, one of the harbours of Bermuda, and hung on a coral reef for a
couple of hours. There loomed before us the dismal prospect of delay for
repairs, or, still worse, the chance of springing a leak and
experiencing such difficulties and dangers as we had undergone on the
_Will-o'-the-Wisp_, but fortunately we came off without damage and were
able to proceed on our voyage.
Another anxiety now engrossed my mind: the captain was an entirely new
hand, and nearly all the crew were green at the work; moreover, the
Wilmington pilot was quite unknown to me, and I could see from the
outset that he was very nervous and badly wanting in confidence. What
would I not have given for our trusty Tom Burroughs. However, we had to
make the best of it, as, owing to the demand, the supply of competent
pilots was not nearly sufficient, and towards the close of the blockade
the so-called pilots were no more than boatmen or men who had been
trading in and out of Wilmington or Charleston in coasters.
Notwithstanding my fears, all went well on the way across, and the
_Night_ _Hawk_ proved to be everything that could be desired in speed
and seaworthiness.
We had sighted unusually few craft, and nothing eventful occurred until
the third night. Soon after midnight we found ourselves uncomfortably
near a large vessel. It was evident that we had been seen, as we heard
them beating to quarters and were hailed. We promptly sheered off and
went full speed ahead, greeted by a broadside which went across our
stern.
When we arrived within striking distance of Wilmington bar the pilot was
anxious to go in by Smith's inlet, but as he acknowledged that he knew
very little about it I concluded it was better to keep to the new inlet
passage, where, at all events, we should have the advantage of our good
friend Lamb to protect us; and I felt that as I myself knew the place so
well, this was the safest course to pursue. We were comparatively well
through the fleet, although heavily fired at, and arrived near to the
bar, passing close by two Northern launches which were lying almost upon
it. Unfortunately it was dead low water, and although I pressed the
pilot to give our boat a turn round, keeping under weigh, and to wait a
while until the tide made, he was so demoralised by the firing we had
gone through and the nearness of the launches, which were constantly
throwing up rockets, that he insisted upon putting her at the bar, and,
as I feared, we grounded on it forward, and with the strong flood-tide
quickly broached-to, broadside on to the Northern breaker. We kept our
engines going for some time—but to no purpose, as we found we were only
being forced by the tide more on to the breakers. Therefore we stopped,
and all at once found our friends, the two launches, close aboard: they
had discovered we were ashore, and had made up their minds to attack us.
At once all was in confusion; the pilot and signalman rushed to the
dinghy, lowered it, and made good their escape; the captain lost his
head and disappeared; and the crews of the launches, after firing
several volleys, one of which slightly wounded me, rowed in to board us
on each sponson. Just at this moment I suddenly recollected that our
private despatches, which ought to have been thrown overboard, were
still in the starboard life-boat. I rushed to it, but found the lanyard
to which the sinking weight was attached was foul of one of the thwarts;
I tugged and tugged, but to no purpose, so I sung out for a knife which
was handed to me by a fireman, and I cut the line and pitched the bag
overboard as the Northerners jumped on board. Eighteen months afterwards
that fireman accosted me in the Liverpool streets, saying, "Mr. Taylor,
do you remember my lending you a knife." "Of course I do," I replied,
giving him a tip at which he was mightily pleased: poor fellow, he had
been thirteen months in a Northern prison.
When the Northerners jumped on board they were terribly excited. I don't
know whether they expected resistance or not, but they acted more like
maniacs than sane men, firing their revolvers and cutting right and left
with their cutlasses. I stood in front of the men on the poop and said
that we surrendered, but all the reply I received from the lieutenant
commanding was, "Oh, you surrender, do you?..." accompanied by a string
of the choicest Yankee oaths and sundry reflections upon my parentage;
whereupon he fired his revolver twice point blank at me not two yards
distant: it was a miracle he did not kill me, as I heard the bullets
whiz past my head. This roused my wrath, and I expostulated in the
strongest terms upon his firing on unarmed men; he then cooled down,
giving me into the charge of two of his men, one of whom speedily
possessed himself of my binoculars. Fortunately, as I had no guard to my
watch, they didn't discover it, and I have it still.
Finding they could not get the ship off, and afraid, I presume, of Lamb
and his men coming to our rescue, the Federals commenced putting the
captain (who had been discovered behind a boat!) and the crew into the
boats; they then set the ship on fire fore and aft, and she soon began
to blaze merrily. At this moment one of our firemen, an Irishman, sung
out, "Begorra, we shall all be in the air in a minute, the ship is full
of gunpowder!" No sooner did the Northern sailors hear this than a panic
seized them, and they rushed to their boats, threatening to leave their
officers behind if they did not come along. The men who were holding me
dropped me like a hot potato, and to my great delight jumped into their
boat, and away they rowed as fast as they could, taking all our crew,
with the exception of the second officer, one of the engineers, four
seamen and myself, as prisoners.
We chuckled at our lucky escape, but we were not out of the wood yet, as
we had only a boat half stove in, in which to reach the shore through
some 300 yards of surf, and we were afraid at any moment that our
enemies finding there was no powder on board might return. We made a
feeble effort to put the fire out, but it had gained too much headway,
and although I offered the men with me £50 apiece to stand by me and
persevere, they were too demoralised and began to lower the shattered
boat, swearing that they would leave me behind if I didn't come with
them. There was nothing for it but to go, yet the passage through the
boiling surf seemed more dangerous to my mind than remaining on the
burning ship. The blockaders immediately opened fire when they knew
their own men had left the _Night Hawk_, and that she was burning; and
Lamb's great shells hurtling over our heads, and those from the
blockading fleet bursting all around us, formed a weird picture. In
spite of the hail of shot and shell and the dangers of the boiling surf,
we reached the shore in safety, wet through, and glad I was in my state
of exhaustion from loss of blood and fatigue to be welcomed by Lamb's
orderly officer.
The poor _Night Hawk_ was now a sheet of flame, and I thought it was all
up with her; and indeed it would have been had it not been for Lamb,
who, calling for volunteers from his garrison, sent off two or three
boat loads of men to her, and when I came down to the beach, after
having my wound dressed and a short rest, I was delighted to find the
fire had sensibly decreased. I went on board, and after some hours of
hard work the fire was extinguished. But what a wreck she was!
Luckily with the rising tide she had bumped over the bank, and was now
lying on the main beach much more accessible and sheltered. Still it
seemed an almost hopeless task to save her; but we were not going to be
beaten without a try, so, having ascertained how she lay and the
condition she was in, I resolved to have an attempt to get her dry, and
telegraphed to Wilmington for assistance.
Our agent sent me down about 300 negroes to assist in baling and
pumping, and I set them to work at once. As good luck would have it, my
finest steamer, _Banshee_ No. 2, which had just been sent out, ran in
the next night. She was a great improvement on the first _Banshee_,
having a sea-speed of 15-1/2 knots, which was considered very fast in
those days; her length was 252 feet, beam 31 feet, depth 11 feet, her
registered tonnage 439 tons, and her crew consisted of fifty-three in
all. I at once requisitioned her for aid in the shape of engineers and
men, so that now I had everything in the way of hands I could want. Our
great difficulty was that the _Night Hawk's_ anchors would not hold for
us to get a fair haul at her.
But here again I was to be in luck. For the very next night the
_Falcon_, commanded by poor Hewett, in attempting to run in stuck fast
upon the bank over which we had bumped, not one hundred yards to
windward of us, and broke in two. It is an ill wind that blows nobody
good, and Hewett's mischance proved the saving of our ship. Now we had a
hold for our chain cables by making them fast to the wreck, and were
able gradually to haul her off by them a little during each tide, until
on the seventh day we had her afloat in a gut between the bank and the
shore, and at high water we steamed under our own steam gaily up the
river to Wilmington.
Considering the appliances we had and the circumstances under which we
were working, the saving of that steamer was certainly a wonderful
performance, as we were under fire almost the whole time. The
Northerners, irritated, no doubt, by their failure to destroy the ship,
used to shell us by day and send in boats by night; Lamb, however, put a
stop to the latter annoyance by lending us a couple of companies to
defend us, and one night, when our enemies rowed close up with the
intention of boarding us, they were glad to sheer off with the loss of a
lieutenant and several men. In spite of all the shot and shell by day
and the repeated attacks at night, we triumphed in the end, and, after
having the _Night Hawk_ repaired at a huge cost and getting together a
crew, I gave May, a friend of mine, command of her, and he ran her out
successfully with a valuable cargo, which made her pay, notwithstanding
all her bad luck and the amount spent upon her. Poor May, he was
afterwards governor of Perth gaol, and is dead now,—a high-toned,
sensitive gentleman, mightily proud of his ship, lame duck as she was.
When she was burning, our utmost efforts were of course directed towards
keeping her engine-room and boilers amidships intact, and confining the
flames to both ends; in this we were successful, mainly owing to the
fact of her having thwart-ship bunkers: but as regards the rest of the
steamer she was a complete wreck; her sides were all corrugated with the
heat, and her stern so twisted that her starboard quarter was some two
feet higher than her port one, and not a particle of woodwork was left
unconsumed. Owing to the limited resources of Wilmington as regards
repairs, I found it impossible to have this put right, so her sides were
left as they were, and the new deck put on on the slope I have
described, and caulked with cotton, as no oakum was procurable. When
completed she certainly was a queer-looking craft, but as tight as a
bottle and as seaworthy as ever, although I doubt if any Lloyd's
surveyor would have passed her. But as a matter of fact she came across
the Atlantic, deeply immersed with her coal supply, through some very
bad weather, without damage, and was sold for a mere song, to be
repaired and made into a passenger boat for service on the East Coast,
where she ran for many years with success.
It had been a hard week for me, as I had no clothes except what I had on
when we were boarded,—my servant very cleverly, as he imagined, having
thrown my portmanteau into the man-of-war's boat when he thought I was
going to be captured, and all I had in the world was the old serge suit
in which I stood. Being without a change and wet through every day and
night for six days consecutively, it is little wonder that I caught
fever and ague, of which I nearly died in Richmond, and which
distressing complaint stuck to me for more than eighteen months. I shall
never forget, on going to a store in Wilmington for a new rig-out (which
by the bye cost $1200), the look of horror on the storekeeper's face
when I told him the coat I had purchased would do if he cut a foot off
it: he thought it such a waste of expensive material.
A very unfortunate occurrence took place incident upon the wreck of the
_Falcon_. She had on board as passenger a Mrs. Greenhow, a famous
Confederate spy, who, when the steamer struck, pleaded hard to be put
ashore, fearing no doubt capture by the Federals. Hewett was most
energetic in his efforts to dissuade her, but at last manned a boat for
her, which was upset in the breakers, and she alone was drowned. It was
I who found her body on the beach at daylight, and afterwards took it up
to Wilmington. A remarkably handsome woman she was, with features which
showed much character. Although one cannot altogether admire the
profession of a spy, still there was no doubt that she imagined herself
in following such a profession to be serving her country in the only way
open to her.
Surely in war the feelings of both men and women become blunted as to
the niceties of what is right or wrong. I well remember on one occasion
an eminent Confederate officer bringing me an infernal machine which he
had invented, a kind of shell exactly like a lump of coal, with a
request that some should be placed on each of our steamers, and that, in
case of capture, they should be put in the coal bunkers so as to be
thrown into the furnaces by the prize crew. I told him that this was not
my idea of making war, and moreover mildly suggested that, even if it
were, he seemed to have forgotten that our crew would probably be on
board as prisoners and be blown up into the air with their captors.
Another eminent Confederate military doctor proposed to me during the
prevalence of the yellow fever epidemic that he should ship by our boats
to Nassau and Bermuda sundry cases of infected clothing, which were to
be sent to the North with the idea of spreading the disease there. This
was too much, and I shouted at him, not in the choicest language, to
leave the office. It is difficult to conceive of such a diabolical idea,
not only to spread havoc among combatants, but among innocent women and
children, being present in an educated man's mind.