CHARLESTON, SEPTEMBER 27th, 1869.--It is high tide, and three o’clock
in the afternoon when we leave the Battery-quay; the ebb carries us off
shore, and as Captain Huntly has hoisted both main and top sails, the
northerly breeze drives the “Chancellor” briskly across the bay. Fort
Sumter ere long is doubled, the sweeping batteries of the mainland on
our left are soon passed, and by four o’clock the rapid current of the
ebbing tide has carried us through the harbour-mouth.
But as yet we have not reached the open sea; we have still to thread our
way through the narrow channels which the surge has hollowed out amongst
the sand-banks. The captain takes a south-west course, rounding the
lighthouse at the corner of the fort; the sails are closely trimmed; the
last sandy point is safely coasted, and at length, at seven o’clock in
the evening; we are out free upon the wide Atlantic.
The “Chancellor” is a fine square-rigged three-master, of 900 tons
burden, and belongs to the wealthy Liverpool firm of Laird Brothers. She
is two years old, is sheathed and secured with copper, her decks being
of teak, and the base of all her masts, except the mizzen, with all their
fittings, being of iron. She is registered first class A I, and is now
on her third voyage between Charleston and Liverpool. As she wended her
way through the channels of Charleston harbour, it was the British flag
that was lowered from her mast-head; but without colours at all,
no sailor could have hesitated for a moment in telling her
nationality,--for English she was, and nothing but English from her
water-line upwards to the truck of her masts.
I must now relate how it happens that I have taken my passage on board
the “Chancellor” on her return voyage to England. At present there is no
direct steamship service between South Carolina and Great Britain,
and all who wish to cross must go either northwards to New York or
southwards to New Orleans. It is quite true that if I had chosen to
start from New York I might have found plenty of vessels belonging to
English, French, or Hamburg lines, any of which would have conveyed me
by a rapid voyage to my destination; and it is equally true that if I
had selected New Orleans for my embarkation I could readily have reached
Europe by one of the vessels of the National Steam Navigation Company,
which join the French Transatlantic line of Colon and Aspinwall. But it
was fated to be otherwise.
One day, as I was loitering about the Charleston quays, my eye lighted
upon this vessel. There was something about the “Chancellor” that
pleased me, and a kind of involuntary impulse took me on board, where I
found the internal arrangements perfectly comfortable. Yielding to the
idea that a voyage in a sailing vessel had certain charms beyond the
transit in a steamer, and reckoning that with wind and wave in my
favour there would be little material difference in time; considering,
moreover, that in these low latitudes the weather in early autumn is
fine and unbroken, I came to my decision, and proceeded forthwith to
secure my passage by this route to Europe.
Have I done right or wrong? Whether I shall have reason to regret my
determination is a problem to be solved in the future. However, I will
begin to record the incidents of our daily experience, dubious as I feel
whether the lines of my chronicle will ever find a reader.