ANOTHER NIGHT EXPEDITION
With the drum still beating on the shore, the Teaser rounded the
northwestern point of the island, when the wheel was heaved over.
Christy was entirely confident in regard to the navigation, for he had
steered the Bellevite through the same channel when on an excursion a
year before. But he had daylight and sunshine at that time instead of
fog and gloom as on the present occasion.
"Buoy on the starboard, sir!" reported the leadsman on that side.
"Buoy on the port hand!" cried the man on the other side, a minute
later.
"We are all right," added the lieutenant. "We are between the middle
ground and the island. The buoy on the port is the southwest point of
the island."
The Bellevite was not the only man-of-war that lay off Pensacola, for
the Brooklyn and other vessels were there to assist in the defence of
Fort Pickens, which the enemy were determined to capture if possible.
The government had done everything within its means to "hold the fort,"
though an army of about ten thousand men had been gathered in the
vicinity to reduce it. The dry-dock which had floated near Warrenton,
and which the Confederates intended to sink in the channel, had been
burned, and a force of Unionists, including the Zouaves, called "The Pet
Lambs," had been quartered on the island of Santa Rosa. It had looked
for several days as though the enemy were preparing for a movement in
retaliation for the destruction of the dry-dock, which was a bad
set-back for them.
The getting to sea of the Teaser had no connection with this movement,
it appeared afterwards, and if Lieutenant Passford's enterprise had been
carried out only an hour or two later, he would have found the situation
quite different. He had sent the most of Captain Folkner's force on
board ashore, and had it all his own way afterwards. He was sorry to
leave these men, and the rest of the ship's company of the Teaser, to
assist in fighting the battles of the Confederacy, and he was filled
with the hope that they might yet be captured.
As soon as the Teaser was well to the southward of the island, Christy
gave two short and a long blast on the steam whistle, which was the
signal he had agreed to make when he approached the Bellevite, though
Captain Breaker had laughed at him when he suggested that he might
return in the prize. The same signal was made in reply, and repeated
several times to aid him in finding the ship. The water was
comparatively smooth, and the prize came alongside the Bellevite,
where it was made fast.
The lieutenant's first duty was to report to the captain of the
Bellevite, and taking Dave with him, he hastened on board. He found
Captain Breaker on deck, for there was a feeling in the fleet and in the
fort that some important event was about to transpire in the vicinity.
"I am glad to see you, Mr. Passford," said he; and possibly it
occurred to him that he had sent the young man on a difficult mission,
practically within the enemy's lines. "You have brought the prize with
you, I see; and I was before informed of the fact that you had her by
the signal whistles."
"Yes, sir; the Teaser is alongside. She is not a vessel of the
Confederate Navy, but was fitted out on private account. She is a
privateer," replied Christy.
"So much the better that you have captured her," added the captain.
"Did you have a severe fight, Mr. Passford?"
"We had no fight at all, sir. I was instructed to avoid a fight if
possible, and I have done so. Not a blow has been struck or a shot
fired, sir."
"I will hear your report in detail later, Mr. Passford, when the prize
is in a better situation than now. Have you any prisoners?" asked
Captain Breaker.
"Only the captain and the engineers, sir. This man with me is Dave,
and he was a steward on board of the Teaser. He has given me valuable
information, and I have not regarded him as a prisoner," replied the
lieutenant.
"I understand," said the commander, with a smile, as he saw the yellow
hue of the steward's face. "We will not regard him as a prisoner. But
you may send the others on board."
Captain Folkner was in no better humor than before, and a berth in the
steerage was assigned to him. The other prisoners were sent on board,
and Captain Breaker had ordered Christy to anchor the prize near the
Bellevite.
"I don't feel as though I had quite finished my work," said Christy,
as he walked towards the gangway to obey the order.
"What more is there to do?" asked the commander.
"It would take me a little time to tell the story of my trip into the
bay, sir, and I think you would not understand what more is to be done
until you have heard it," replied Christy.
"Then I will hear you before you anchor the Teaser," said the captain,
leading the way to his cabin.
The lieutenant narrated the events of his trip across Santa Rosa Island.
Captain Breaker was not a little amused at his scheme to get rid of the
portion of the crew of the privateer before he captured her.
"I never suspected that you were the possessor of so much audacity,
Christy," said he, when the lieutenant had put him in possession of all
the facts.
"I did not know that I had more than my fair share, sir, and I don't
know what I have done that is at all audacious," replied Christy, very
meekly.
"It is a very dark and foggy night, but I don't believe that I have
another officer who would have cheek enough to pretend to be a pilot
in Pensacola Bay, and to be in possession of the guard-boat at the same
time."
"Captain Folkner put the idea into my head, and I think I should have
been an idiot not to make use of it, considering the nature of my
mission on board of the Teaser."
"It is a wonder that no one knew you were not Gilder."
"The men in the guard-boat did not expose me, and admitted by their
silence that I was the person I claimed to be," replied Christy, with
a twinkle of the eyes.
"Your scheme would have failed ninety-nine times out of a hundred."
"If it had failed, I had force enough to clean out the enemy on board,
so that I ran no risk; but I was ordered to avoid a fight, and I did
so," argued Christy.
"You were exceedingly fortunate; and the next time you try such a trick,
it may lead you into a rebel prison."
"It was not my fault that the ship's company of the Teaser were at issue
among themselves, and I should have been an imbecile to fail to profit
by it."
"I approve all you have done, Mr. Passford."
"Thank you, sir. Though I was of Captain Folkner's opinion that the
sound was the best way out of the bay in the first place, I abandoned
that view before I started on the expedition. I was sorry that I could
not indorse Captain Folkner's opinion, and that I was obliged to take
sides with his men," said Christy, chuckling.
"I understand your position perfectly. Now, what do you mean by
finishing your work, Mr. Passford?" asked Captain Breaker, curiously.
"We have the Teaser, and we ought to be satisfied with your brilliant
success."
"I am not quite satisfied, sir."
"You ought to be."
"We put twelve men ashore at Town Point rather than have a fight with
them; and I have the feeling that we have a mortgage on those men,
to say nothing of thirty more at Pensacola who were to join the Teaser.
I told them they could get on board of their steamer from the island.
I shall be sorry to disappoint them, for I suppose the whole forty or
more are counting on a handsome allowance of prize money to be made for
them by the Teaser. I should be sorry to disappoint them," continued
Christy, chuckling all the time.
"Precisely so! I suppose you would be greatly grieved to blast their
hopes, and you propose to take them on board of the steamer."
"That is the idea, sir. Taking a more patriotic view of the question,
it would be a great pity to allow forty good sailors to waste their
energies in the service of the Confederacy."
"Undoubtedly it would," said Captain Breaker, his brow knitting under
his earnest thought. "What do you propose to do? Explain your plan
fully, Mr. Passford."
"The principal of the malcontents on board of the Teaser was a man by
the name of Lonley," Christy explained. "We left them at the point where
the rest of the Teaser's crew were to join them. They are all anxious
to get to sea in the Teaser, and I have no doubt they will come down
to-night."
"I should think they would," the captain assented. "But they will expect
to find the steamer in the sound, and not outside of the island. If the
Teaser could get through the sound at all, she would not be where you
intend to put her."
"I told Lonley to get upon the island, and be on the lookout for the
Teaser; and as they have to come from Pensacola in a boat, it will be as
easy for them to go to the island as to land at the point. Very likely
they will get the Times to bring them off, or some other steamer,"
Christy argued.
"It is certainly very desirable to capture these men, for it will do so
much to weaken the enemy; but I am afraid you are a little too audacious
in some of your movements, Mr. Passford," replied Captain Breaker, with
a softening smile.
"I beg you will not consider that I am asking for the command of the
Teaser, Captain Breaker, if she is sent upon this duty," returned the
lieutenant, somewhat set back at the prudence of the commander.
"I think I had better send Mr. Blowitt in command of the Teaser, and you
shall go as his first officer," added the captain.
"I have no objection, even in my heart, to this arrangement," replied
Christy.
"But I shall have to send the prize to New York, and I will appoint you
prize-master," continued the captain, afraid that he was disappointing
the ambitious young officer. "You have done exceedingly well, Christy,
and I shall not fail to mention you favorably in my report; and you will
write out yours as soon as possible."
Christy would not allow himself to think that he was unappreciated
because an older officer was appointed to conduct the enterprise he
suggested. He was ready to do his whole duty either as principal or
subordinate. Mr. Blowitt was summoned from his stateroom, and forty
men, including all who had taken part in the capture of the prize,
were detailed to man the Teaser. The second lieutenant was one of the
jolliest men on board, but he weighed nearly two hundred pounds, and he
was not as active on this account in boat service as some others. He was
an excellent officer, and had been in command of a steamer, though he
had never before been in the navy.
At three o'clock in the morning the fasts of the Teaser were cast off,
and she backed away from the Bellevite. She was to proceed to a point
about six miles to the eastward, which was beyond the camp of the "Pet
Lambs." Here she was to look out for the Teaser's crew.
She had not made half this distance when all hands heard rapid and
continued firing on Santa Rosa Island.