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THE SHENANDOAH;
OR TIE
LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.
BY
CORNELIUS E. HUNT,
(ONE OF HER OFFICERS).
NEW YORK:
G. W. CARLETON, & CO. PUBLISHERS.
LONDON: S. LOW, SON, & CO.
XDCCCLXVII.




Entered according to Act of Congress In the year 1866, by
GEO. W. CARLETON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of
New York.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORT-PURCHASE OF THE STEAMSHIP " SEA KING," ALIAS " SHENANDOAH;"
BY THE CONFEDERATE AGENTS - SHE SAILS FROM LONDON - HER ACTUAL AND
SUPPOSED DESTINATION -DEPARTURE OF THE STEAMSHIP LAUREL FROM LIVERPOOL WITH THE SHENANDOAH'S OFFICERS -ARRIVAL AT MADEIRA...
CHAPTER II.
FUNCHAL, MADEIRA-ITS APPEARANCE FROM THE HARBOR-MOUNT CHURCH-MADEIRA
COASTING- ARRIVAL OF THE SEA KING- GOING OFF TO MEET HER —TRANSFER OF THE LAUREL'S CARGO TO THE SEA KING - THE SEA KING COMMISSIONED
AS THE CONFEDERATE CRUISER SHENANDOAH —HURRIED PREPARATIONS FOR
SEA-AN INADEQUATE CREW-FAREWELL TO MADEIRA-THE FIRST CHASE-DISAPPOINTMENT-THE FIRST PRIZE —CAPTURE OF THE ALINA —SCUTTLING A SHIP
AT SEA-AN ACCESSION TO OUR NUMBERS-CAPTURE OF THE CHARTER OAKLADY PRISONERS-CAPTURE OF THE D. GODFREY-PARTING COMPANY WITH A PORTION OF OUR PRISONERS-CAPTURE OF THE SUSAN AND THE KATE PRINCE-RANSOM
OF THE KATE PRINCE -CAPTURE OF THE LIZZIE M. STACY -A PLUCKY SKIPPER. 17
CHAPTER III.
CROSSING THE LINE -NEPTUNE AND HIS ATTENDANTS - AN AMERICAN WHALER - A
MODEL CAPTAIN- ISLAND OF TRISTAN D'ACUNHA-LANDING PRISONERS- AN
UNKNOWN FLAG- A CONNECTICUT YANKEE - CAPTURE OF THE ADELAIDE - DISAGREEABLE WEATIIER- A GALE OFF THE CAPE - DINNER UNDER DIFFICULTIESCHRISTMAS AT SEA-A CHRISTMAS DINNER -THE ORIGINAL GOOSE - CAPTURE
OF THE DELPHINE -MORE LADY PRISONERS - UNREQUITED COURTESY -ARRIVAL
AT SAINT PAUL'S ISLAND............    49
CHAPTER IV.
GOING ON SHORE-POPULATION OF ST. PAUL'S-DEPARTURE FROM SAINT PAUL
-FALLING IN WITH THE NIMROD -ARRIVAL AT MELBOURNE...
CHAPTER V.
ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION-A GENUINE CONFEDERATE-JOHN BULL RECEIVES THE
CONFEDERATE LIONS-A PLOT-A SUNDAY AT MELBOURNE -THE SHENANDOAH' AT HOME "- REFITTING- A DASH OF COLD WATER - A BALL AT BALARAT - AN
AFFRAY -WE LEAVE MELBOURNE..........    5
1*                  (5)




6                          CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
AN UNEXPECTED ADDITION TO OUR CREW- DRUMMOND'S ISLAND —VISIT FROM A
DELEGATION OF CANNIBALS - WELCOME NEWS - STRONG'S ISLAND- ASCENSION
ISLAND - A DEGENERATE ENGLISHMAN-A SLIGHT MISTAKE -A FLEET OF WHALERS CAPTURED -DESTRUCTION OF THE SHIPS - DIPLOMATIC VISIT TO A CANNIBAL KING - PRESENTATION AT COURT-AN ANCIENT FORTIFICATION- PRISONERS
PAROLED -LEAVING ASCENSION ISLAND.........   113
CHAPTER VII.
STORM AT SEA -DESPERATE SITUATION —PASSING THE AMPHITRITE STRAITS - THE
OCHOTSK SEA - CAPTURE OF THE ABIGAIL- A COOL SKIPPER-A GENERAL SPREE
-JAMMED IN THE ICE -A PILOT SECURED-A THOROUGH REPROBATE..   141
CHAPTER VIII.
EN ROUTE FOR BEHRING'S STRAITS —DANGEROUS NAVIGATION -CAPTURE OF TIlE
WILLIAM THOMPSON-CAPTURE OF TIlE EUPHRATES- CAPTURE AND RANSOM OF
THE MILO - A GENTLE HINT TO DEBTORS — CAPTURE OF THE SOPHIA THORNTON
AND THE JERIAH SWIFT-CAPTURE OF THE SUSAN ABIGAIL-ST. LAWRENCE
ISLAND —CAPTURE OF THE GEN. WILLIAMS- A RICH HAUL OF SPECIE- A VISIT
FROM THE ESQUIMAUX —CAPTURE OF WILLIAM C. NYE -THE NIMROD AND THE
CATHERINE - THE GENERAL PIKE AND THE GYPSEY- A FRIGHTENED CAPTAIN -
CAPTURE OF THE ISABEL -OUR LAST EXPLOIT -CAPTURE OF THE WAVERLY- AN
IRREPRESSIBLE YANKEE-CAPTURE OF THE SHIPS HILLMAN, NASSAU, ISAAC HOWLAND, BRUNSWICK; AND THE BARQUES CONGRESS, MARTHA 2D, JAMES MURRAY,
NILE, AND FAVORITE - THE LAST ACT OF THE WAR- WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
-AGROUND ON THE ICE............   168
CHAPTER IX.
DEPARTURE FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS-MEETING THE BARRACOUTA-STARTLING INTELLIGENCE - GLOOMY FOREBODINGS - A RACE - A GALE OFF CAPE HORN - ICEBERGS
-A SUSPICIOUS CRAFT- A BURIAL AT SEA- NEARING LAND....   215
CHAPTER X.
ARRIVAL AT HOLYHEAD - AN ENGLISH WELCOME-ANTICIPATIONS OF TROUBLE WITH
THE CREW- THE SURRENDER OF THE SHENAHDOAH - CAPTAIN WADDELL'S LETTER-SUSPENSE-THE AUTHOR GOES ON SHORE WITH THE PROCEEDS OF HIS
CRUISE - A GOOD SAMARITAN-THE PRISONERS RELEASED- DISBANDING OF THE
CREW — CAPTAIN WADDELL'S PECULATIONS —HIS LAST LETTER...   241




THE SHENANDOAH;
OR'rHE
LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.
CHAPTER I.
FROM LONDON TO MADEIRA.
T HE Southern Confederacy exists only in
the past. The gallant armies which so
long resisted the overpowering odds with
which they had to contend, are broken and
scattered, and for the most part have
returned to the pursuits of peace; its Chief
languishes, a prisoner of State in a military
fortress, and its little navy has ceased to
inspire with terror the people of the United
States "who go down to the sea in ships,
and do business in the great waters."
(7)




8       THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
It came to pass that I was one of the few
who witnessed the last descending glory of
this attempted Republic, projected by men
who considered that the only true and natural foundation of society was " the wants and
fears of individuals," but which was decided
adversely to their interpretation of that natural law, by the God of battles.
What I may have to relate in the succeeding pages is simply'the plain, unvarnished
narrative - a transcript of the log, if you
please - of a sailor, who entered the service
of the Confederate States, because he was
"to the manor born," and felt in honor
bound to follow the fortunes of his State, and
who was among the last to turn sorrowfully
away from a cause which had no longer a
flag to defend, or a Government to save its
adherents on the seas from the stigma of
piracy.
On Saturday, the 7th of October 1864, the
English steamer, " Sea King," left her moor



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.       9
ings in London, having cleared for Bombay
or any other port in the East Indies, on a
voyage not to exceed two years. She was a
long, rakish vessel of seven hundred and
ninety tons register, with an auxiliary engine
of two hundred and twenty nominal horsepower, with which she was capable of steaming ten knots an hour. She was the handiwork of Stevens and Son, the celebrated
builders on the river Clyde, in Scotland, and
had been launched the preceding year, after
which she had made one voyage to New
Zealand as a transport for British troops.
On this, her first voyage, she proved herself one of the fastest sailers afloat, her log
showing at times over three hundred and
twenty miles in twenty-four hours. Such a
vessel, with such a prestige, was not likely to
escape the notice of the Confederate agents
in England, who were on the lookout for
suitable craft for privateering purposes, and
quietly, so quietly in fact, that except those




10      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
immediately connected with the transaction,
no one was aware of it, this splendid ship
was sold to the Confederacy, and lay in the
basin taking in coal and provisions sufficient
for a twelve month's cruise, without awakening a suspicion in official circles, or even in
the mind of the public as to her ultimate destination, or the important part she was to
play in the great drama of the American civil
war.
When everything was arranged, the Sea
King hauled out of the basin, and proceeded
to sea under the command of Captain Corbet,
an English ship-master, and flying the English flag.
She carried two twelve pounders, such as
are usually mounted upon an East Indiaman
of her size, and, in brief, so well had the
whole affair been managed, that there was
nothing in her departure to excite even passing attention. It was only an ordinary vessel setting sail upon an ordinary voyage.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    11
She was scarcely clear of the ground, however, when a telegram was flashed to Liverpool, advising the Confederate agent at that
port, that the first part of the great programme had been accurately performed, and
about eight o'clock the same evening, a mysterious individual was flitting from place to
place in that city, advising certain other persons that the moment they had been so anxiously awaiting for some weeks had arrived;
and an hour later, from hotels, boardinghouses, and apartments pretending and unpretending, issued forth a score or more of
gentlemen, natives of the sunny South, who
had staked life and fortune on the hazard of
a desperate game, and took their solitary way
towards the landing stage where a steam tug
was in waiting to convey them on board the
steamer Laurel.
These persons were the officers of the
Confederate cruiser Shenandoah, into which
the Sea King was to be transformed a few




12      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
days later at the Island of Madeira, and the
steamer Laurel contained her armament and
crew, and was to meet her there, although
ostensibly bound to Nassau or Havana, with
supplies for the Confederate Government.
The Laurel was commanded by Lieutenant
Ramsey, and although a Confederate vessel,
she flew the English flag.
Our baggage had all been previously sent
on board packed in dry goods boxes marked
with a diamond and a number above it, by
which each officer was known, and at the
moment of departure every one was furnished
with a receipt, of which the following, except
the name (in all cases fictitious) is a copy.
Received from Mr. Elias Smith, thirty-two pounds,
for his passage in the cabin of Steamer Laurel, from
this port to Havana.
~ 32.                     HENRY LAFONE.
It was a chilly October evening, with a
heavy mist rendering everything half invisible at a distance of a dozen paces, when




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      13
after receiving the above document, I sallied
forth from my Liverpool lodgings, conscious
that at last I was setting out upon the adventurous career for which I had so long been
preparing.
No one unless he has stood in a similar
place can appreciate the crowd of emotions
that whirled through my mind. I was about
to join, clandestinely, a vessel commissioned
by a Government still in embryo, but which I
had sworn to support, to cruise against the
commerce of another Government which still
claimed me as its liege subject. If the cause
I upheld was successful, there was wealth,
fame, and glory, to be earned; if it failed, a
felon's doom impended over me and my associates; but I was too young and hopeful to
long contemplate the dark side of the case;
the ship I was to join was afloat; the ocean
was before us, and, sailor-like, I was content
to put my trust in Providence, Neptune, and
the Southern Confederacy.
2




14      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
It was curious, too, as I plodded my solitary
way. down the wet, slippery street, to see
other men accoutred like myself, and bound
as I well knew upon the same mission, without venturing to exchange with them a word
of greeting, but the injunctions of secrecy
were peremptory and too much was at stake
for orders to be lightly disregarded.
We were obliged to be thus secret in our
movements, to avoid being detected by some
of the numerous spies employed by the
United States Consul at Liverpool, to watch
the movements of the Confederates in that
city, and prevent if possible the shipment of
munitions of war or the fitting out of vessels
in the Southern interest; consequently the
Laurel's passengers affected to be entire
strangers to each other and avoided all appearance of concert of action until they were
safe on board. This was accomplished before
midnight, and having shown our receipts, we




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    15
were conducted to our state-rooms and berths,
and at 4 A. M., proceeded to sea under steam.
After passing Holyhead and getting fairly
outside, all restraint was thrown off, and we
warmly congratulated Captain Ramsey upon
the admirable manner in which he had succeeded in eluding the lynx eyes of Uncle
Sam's men, and getting to sea with the armament to equip, and the officers to take charge
of, our new cruiser.
It was, upon the whole, a merry company
that assembled in the cabins of the Laurel
that memorable Sunday morning. There
were some faces upon which the shadow of
parting from loved ones still lingered, and
some heavy hearts, I doubt not, were concealed under a gay exterior, but there was so
much that was alluring in the wild romance
of the life before us, such a wide range for
hope, so many probabilities in our favor, that
care, sorrow, and anxiety drifted pretty rap



16         THE SHENANDOAH.
idly to leeward, and with the first splicing of
the main brace disappeared.
Among our passengers were several old
Confederate States Navy officers, who had
served on board the Sumter, Alabama, and
Georgia, and of course they had much to tell
us of their experience, and our voyage was
enlivened by many a yarn, such as none but
an old cruiser can spin, and with excellent
accommodations, a well-appointed table, and
other creature comforts unnecessary to specify
more particularly, we succeeded in enjoying
ourselves to the utmost.
On the morning of the sixth day out from
Liverpool, we sighted the Island of Madeira,
and before noon dropped anchor in the harbor of Funchal.




CHAPTER  II.
FROM MADEIRA TO THE " LINE."
AFTER circumnavigating the globe, I have
no hesitation in saying that Funchal is
one of the most beautiful and salubrious
places it was ever my good fortune to visit,
although my opportunities for observation
were limited to spy-glass explorations, as we
dared not leave the vessel for fear of awakening suspicion as to our true character.
The city has several buildings of considerable architectural pretensions.  One in
particular, of which we had a fine view from
the harbor, is known as Mount Church, and
occupies the summit of a bold bluff several
thousand feet above the level of the sea, from
which its two tall, white towers stand out in
2*          (17)




18      THIE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
bold relief against this almost cloudless sky.
The church is reached by a road that zigzags
up the bluff a distance of nearly four miles,
- a by no means easy pedestrian excursion,
and is generally performed on horseback, but
the return trip to town is usually made upon
sleds, at the invigorating rate of some twenty
miles an hour. To a native of the Northern
States this would be refreshingly suggestive
of the boyish pastime of coasting; and some
idea of the steepness of the declivity may be
gathered by the rate of speed at which, as I
have stated, the Madeira sleds glide down the
rocky pathway, which is paved with smooth,
round stone.
Among the other public edifices, I may
mention the Blind Asylum, where some exquisite artificial flowers are manufactured
from feathers, by the young girls, its inmates,
and also baskets of every shape and description, pretty ornamental things in their way,




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      19
which are disposed of to the ships visiting
the port, for the benefit of the Institution.
The fortress commanding the harbor has
been hewn out of the natural rock, and is a
most formidable structure, a sort of pocket
edition of Gibraltar, in fact, and, thoroughly
armed and garrisoned, would be an ugly
place to carry by assault.
After remaining at anchor for two days we
began to feel some uneasiness in regard to the
Sea King, as sufficient time had elapsed to
enable her to make the run, but we were not
fated to be kept long in suspense. On the
evening of the third day the absentee made
her appearance and commenced signalling,
but as it was contrary to rules to leave the
harbor after dark, we perforce remained
where we were until morning, when, having
received permission from the authorities on
shore, we stood out to meet her.
Although there was a fresh breeze blowing
at the time, we had a full head of steam on,




20      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
and as we neared her, we signalled her to
round the Desertas, a barren, rocky island,
lying near Madeira, and proceeded on towards
the place of rendezvous, the Sea King following in our wake.
In about three hours we succeeded in
rounding the island, and had the good fortune
to find an excellent place for discharging our
armament and ammunition, from the Laurel
to her consort. Everything was auspicious
for the work before us. Scarce a breath of
air coquetted with the idle sails, and the
ocean around us was as smooth as a millpond.  But moments were precious; the
power against which we were about to commence hostilities was active and vigilant; its
iron-clad floating fortresses ploughed the sea
in every direction, and some such unwelcome
visitor might disturb us at our work at any
moment; consequently all felt the necessity
of rapidly discharging the important duty
that devolved upon us.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    21
Tackles were at once got aloft on both vessels, and we commenced operations by first
transferring from the Laurel to the Sea King
the heavy guns. This was the most difficult
part of our labor; indeed the rest was comparatively easy.  Both  officers and  men
worked together, and as I have seldom seen
men work before, and a number of Portuguese fishermen, inhabitants of the island of
Desertas, rendered us essential assistance, for
which they received our gratitude as well as
a more substantial remuneratLoh.
At the expiration of thirty-six hours of
wild excitement and unremitting toil, the
transfer was effected, and the munitions of
war, clothing, and stores with which the
Laurel had been laden, were piled in utter
confusion on the decks and in the hold of the
Sea King, which was to bear that name no
more.
The officers and men of both vessels were
then summoned to the quarter deck of the




22      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
latter, where they were informed, some of
them for the first time, that she was to resign
her peaceful character as well as her name,
and to be transformed into a Confederate
cruiser.
Captain James I. Waddell then appeared,
dressed in the uniform of the Confederate
States Navy, and delivered a brief but impressive address, stating that the object of
the proposed cruise was to prey upon the
commerce of the Government with which we
were at war, thus rendering what service we
could to our unfortunate country, and concluded by announcing that all who chose to
join the ship in her new character, would receive fifteen pounds bounty, and be entitled
to from four to seven pounds per month
wages, according to their capabilities.
Captain Waddell's address was received
with but little enthusiasm from the majority
of those who listened to him, although, undoubtedly the greater part sympathized with




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    23
our cause. But out of eighty, twenty-three
only cast in their lots with the new cruiser,
which then hoisted the Confederate flag, and
was formally commissioned as the Confederate States' Steamer Shenandoah.
The moment of parting had -come. Those
who were to return in the Laurel went over
the side, gave us three hearty cheers, and
wished us all the success which they declined
to help achieve; and we, who were to remain and follow the fortunes of the Shenandoah through weal or woe, turned to with a
will, hove up our ponderous anchor from its
muddy bed, and stood out to sea under steam,
trusting to the God of nations and a good
breeze for the safety, which, in our present
situation, could only come to us from such
sources.
The Shenandoah was a full rigged ship,
two hundred and twenty feet in length, and
thirty-five feet beam, with iron masts and
lower yards.  She carried royal. studding




24      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
sails, and was rigged with Cunningham's patent reefing topsails, and under sail with a
fair breeze, with a sufficient crew to work
her, we had little to apprehend from a chase.
But officers and crew only numbered fortytwo souls, less- than half her regular complement, and consequently, for the time being,
we were obliged to mainly depend upon our
auxiliary engine, with which, as I have remarked in the preceding chapter, we were
capable of steaming about ten knots an hour,
a by no means extraordinary rate of speed
for a steam cruiser.
Such were the auspices under which we
commenced our adventurous cruise around
the world, in a merchantman commissioned
as a man-of-war, but yet to be transformed
into one, whose guns lay dismounted on the
deck waiting to be remounted, and have port
holes cut, through which to protrude their
grim muzzles, whose ammunition was piled in
promiscuous heaps until a magazine could be




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      25
constructed to receive it, and manned almost
exclusively by officers, few, if any of whom,
had ever performed a day's manual labor,
who thus boldly put to sea, trusting to provide themselves with a crew from vessels yet
to be captured from the enemy.
Confusion worse confounded seemed to
reign on board the Shenandoah as we got under way, and short-handed as we were, it
seemed a task little less than Herculean to
reduce such chaos to order. But that patience and perseverance will accomplish
much, is as true as trite. Every one perfectly understood that if we fell in with a
United States steamer as we were then circumstanced, our race was run; and as such
an abrupt terminus to our career was the reverse of desirable, every man, from the Captain downward, went resolutely to work, and
ere long our combined exertions began to
produce palpable results.
We left on the 20th of October, and the
3




26      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
next day we had mounted two eight-inch
shell guns, and one thirty-two pounder Whitworth rifle. At the expiration of another
twenty-four hours, two more eight-inch shell
guns were in position, and also the mate to
our Whitworth rifle.  This constituted our
battery with the addition of two twelve
pounders aft, of which, however, we did not
expect to make much use except in bringing
ships to.
The carpenters also, had pierced the sides
for the portholes, and things alow and aloft
began to look ship-shape. Still, there was
much to do in temporarily disposing of the
ammunition in a place of safety, and giving
the ship a general clearing up.
On the morning of the 28th, the lookout
aloft reported a sail. In an instant all was
excitement.
"Where away? " bawled the officer of the
deck, as he hurriedly threw  his glance
around the horizon.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      27
"About two points on the lee bow, sir,
standing the same as we are."
"Can you make her out?"
"Aye, aye, sir, a square rigged vessel.
We appear to be raising her fast. I see her
better now. A barque with long mast heads,
and looks like an American."
"Very good. Let me know when she
shows her colors."
It would be difficult to convey an idea of
the interest this brief colloquy occasioned.
From every part of the ship swarmed up the
little company that composed her crew, and
ensconced themselves in the rigging, and
wherever there was a favorable point for
observation, while spy-glasses passed from
hand to hand, and opinions were anxiously
interchanged as to what the stranger might
prove to be.
In the course of an hour we could distinguish the English ensign flying from her
peak, but her appearance was so thoroughly




28      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
American that we concluded to board her
and have a look at her papers.
A blank cartridge was fired across her
bows, the hint was understood and she hove
to, after which an officer was dispatched no
board to ascertain her true character.
She proved to be the barque Monque,
American built, but she had been sold to the
English, as many others had been before, for
fear of the Confederate cruisers. The Captain had his wife and family with him, and
they seemed so cosey and contented in their
little home on the sea, that I was half glad to
find they were really entitled to the protection
of- the flag they flew, and safe from capture.
Satisfied that she was no longer an American vessel, and consequently not game for
our net, we steamed off to the southward,
leaving her to proceed on her voyage, which
I trust was successfully accomplished.
May she never meet a worse enemy than
the Shenandoah proved on that occasion!




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.     29
The following morning the lookout at masthead reported two sails in sight, one on the
port beam, the other on the starboard quarter;
but as yet, we were scarcely in proper condition to take the offensive where any doubt
existed as to the character of our antagonists.
Our number only sufficed to work two of our
eight-inch guns, which would leave two thirds
of our battery entirely unmanned. So, as the
probabilities were that either of the strangers
were far stronger numerically, we reluctantly
permitted them to proceed on their way unmolested.
On the 30th, about nine o'clock in the
morning, another sail was reported about
three points on the port bow. It proved to
be a barque, standing to the southward and
westward.
We immediately got up steam, and proceeded in chase, and in about two hours,
brought her to in the usual manner, by firing
a blank cartridge across her bows. As she
3*




30      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
displayed the American flag from her peak, a
boat was lowered, and a prize crew with two
officers were sent on board to take charge
of her.
On reaching the vessel, we informed the
Captain that his craft was a prize to the Confederate States of America, and ordered him
to get his papers and proceed on board of our
ship.
He hesitated for a moment and then disappeared down the companion-way, and after a
brief absence, returned to the deck with a
tin box containing his documents, and in company with one of our officers, went on board
the Shenandoah.
The Alina was condemned, and it fell to my
lot to return with the Captain to say "goodby" to his ship, and bring away his clothing,
and any other little personal property he
might wish to preserve.
That he felt his misfortune keenly was




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.       31,evident, although he manfully strove to conceal it under a cool, nonchalant exterior.
"I tell you what, Maty," he said, as we
were returning from this, to him, sad errand,
"I've a daughter at home that that craft
yonder was named for, and it goes against me
cursedly to see her destroyed."
"Neither myself nor my brother officers
have any disposition to do you a personal injury," I answered. " Our orders are to prey
upon the commerce of the United States, and
in carrying them out, private individuals have
to suffer, as the widows and orphans of the
South have done and are doing from the
invading armies acting under the instructions
of your Government."
" I know it is only the fortune of war, and
I must take my chances with the rest," the
Captain said, resolutely, "but it's d-d hard,
and I only hope I shall have an opportunity
of returning your polite attentions before this
muss is over, that's all."




32      THE S HENAND OAH; OR THE
By this time the crew of the Alina had
been transferred to the Shenandoah, each old
shell-back disconsolately bringing with him
the bag that contained his dunnage, and were
confined in single irons, and then our carpenters went off to the prize armed with augurs
with which to scuttle her.
In the course of an hour they returned,
having performed their duty, and I stood
leaning over the quarter railing, watching,
with a curious heart-heaviness that none but
a sailor can understand, to see the gallant old
barque sink into her ocean grave.
About four o'clock her stern suddenly settled, her bows reared high in the air, as if in
indignant deprecation of such sacrilegious
treatment at the hands of seamen, and with
all sail set she went down right bravely.
It was the first time I ever saw a vessel
sink at sea, and I confess it was some time
ere I could fully recover from the unpleasantfeelings the sight engendered.   A  sailor




LA ST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.     33
learns to love a ship as something almost
animate; and to see one deserted in midocean by those who have been her guardians,
and slowly settling in the unfathomable
waters, is almost like standing beside a deathbed to watch the sinking away of a soul into
the ocean of eternity.
But I was fated to have a large experience
in this direction ere the Shenandoah and I
finally parted company.
The Alina was captured in 150 15' north
latitude, and 26~ 44' west longitude, and was
valued at ninety-five thousand dollars. Six
of her crew joined us, greatly to our satisfaction, for we sadly needed such an accession
to our numbers, and received the saihe
bounty as those who shipped at the Island
of Desertas. The rest were confined in the
top-gallant forecastle, while the officers were
accommodated in the ward room and treated
with every consideration, which I need scarcely say they heartily appreciated, especially




34      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
the Captain, who remarked to me that he
little anticipated such kindness from an
enemy; but he declined all offers of refreshment, nor could I wonder, under the circumstances, at his disinclination to join in our
conviviality.
I subsequently became quite familiar with
him, and passed many hours, first and last, in
listening to the stories of his own experience,
which he related with infinite gusto.
Several days now elapsed without bringing
any especial incident to break the monotony
of the voyage. The weather was glorious;
the timely addition to our crew made the
labor of working our gallant ship fall less
heavily upon her company, and elated with
the success that had thus far attended us, we
dashed merrily forward on our course.
The thought often occurred to me, and I
doubt not to many of my shipmates, that
there was something almost terribly problematical as to the way and manner in which our




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    35
cruise was destined to terminate, but that
very uncertainty gave an additional zest to
the wild, free life upon which we were entering, and surrounded with a fresh glamour of
romance, our ship and the cause in which
she sailed.
On the fifth of November we discovered a
little fore-and-aft schooner standing to southward, and gave chase, under steam. Before
eight o'clock we had made a prize of her,
and she proved to be the Charter Oak, from
Boston, bound to San Francisco with a general cargo.
The Captain had his wife, her sister, and a
little boy on board with him, and there they
were bound round Cape Horn, in that little
schooner of less than one hundred and fifty
tons burthen, — a noteworthy instance of
Yankee perseverance and daring.
Wle were in want of a variety of articles
in the furnishing way, particularly chairs,
and concluded, without much hesitation, to




36      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
help ourselves from the prize, so our boats
were lowered and a party sent on board of
her, to break out her hold and bring away
whatever might be of use to us.
The boats returned, after several hours'
absence, loaded to the water's edge with
sofas, chairs, small tables, and an almost endless variety of preserved fruits and vegetables, among the rest a quantity of canned
tomatoes, which lasted us about six months,
and formed an agreeable addition to our
commissariat.
Having helped  ourselves to what we
wished, and transferred the ladies, officers,
and crew to our own ship, the schooner was
set on fire, and we steamed away to the
southward, a light wind blowing from the
northeast, and the sea almost without a
ripple.
The prisoners taken from the Charter Oak
were confined in single irons and placed in
the top-gallant forecastle, and accommoda



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    37
tions were found for the officers, the ladies,
and the little boy, in the ward room.
All were in fine spirits as we glided away
from the scene of our last achievement.
Even the Captain of our last prize I noticed
walking the poop with his wife, with a very
much-at-home and perfectly contented air.
For the next three days all hands were
busy in putting together and setting up our
new furniture, and in disposing of the other
contributions which the Charter Oak had
poured into our treasury.  Everything in
the shape of edibles was equally divided
among the messes fore and aft.  In all
things on the Shenandoah it was share and
share alike.
I should mention that as soon as it could
be arranged, the after cabin on the starboard
side was given up to the use of the ladies
and the little boy, and it was amusing to notice with what amazement our fair prisoners
received the courtesy with which we endeav



38      THE SHENANDOAH: OR THE
ored to alleviate their unpleasant position.
That they had anticipated rude and perhaps
brutal treatment from their captors was evident, and not unnaturally perhaps, as all
sorts of sensational stories had been circulated in regard to the doings of other Confederate cruisers; and who does not know
that humanity is prone to listen to and believe any recital of horror that keeps within
the boundary of possibility. We were not
sorry however, to have an opportunity of
disabusing the minds of two Northern ladies
of the notion that Confederate men-of-war'smen were a sort of revised edition of East
India Sepoys.
On the 8th, about eleven A. M. a lookout
on the foretop-sail yard reported a sail in
sight, and as usual, everything was instantly
in commotion.'As there was only a light
breeze blowing, we got up steam and proceeded in chase, and were not long in overhauling  her.  We showed  the  English




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      39
colors, whereupon she hoisted the United
States flag, which, of course, sealed her
doom.
As usual, a boat was sent on board, which
returned in about half an hour with the Captain and his papers, from whom we learned
that our prize was the Barque D. Godfrey
from Boston, bound to Valparaiso with a
cargo of lumber and salt beef. Of the latter
commodity we determined to lay in a supply
sufficient to last us for the cruise, and a gang
of carpenters and men were sent on board to
break out her hold.  This, however, was
found to be such a laborious task that we
decided to give it up and destroy her as she
was.
By six o'clock her officers and crew were
taken off, after which the- bulkheads in the
cabin and pantry were knocked down by a
few blows of the carpenter's hatchet and
thrown in a pile on the floor. A match -wvas
applied, and in fifteen minutes the flames




40      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
were bursting through the skylights, and the
work of destruction had begun.
It was an imposing scene. Darkness had
settled around us when the rigging and sails
took fire, but every rope could be seen' as
distinctly as upon a painted canvas, as the
flames made their way from the deck, and
writhed upward like fiery serpents. Soon
the yards came thundering down by the run
as the lifts and halyards yielded to the devouring element, the standing rigging parted
like blazing flax, and the spars simultaneously went by the board and left the hulk
wrapped from stem to stern in one fierce
blaze, like a floating, fiery furnace.
While this was passing, her late commander paced the quarter-deck with folded
arms and contracted brow, gazing out upon
the ruin he was powerless to avert, with what
feelings I could well imagine.
" That was a vessel which has done her
duty well for forty years," he said to one of




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    41
my brother officers, as she finally disappeared. " She has faced old Boreas in every
part of the world, in the service of her
master, and after such a career, to be destroyed by men on a calm night, on this
tropical sea, is too bad -too bad! "
" It is but one of the results of the terrible
war raging at home," remarked one of the
ladies who had been a silent witness of the
scene. "Would to God it was over! that
the destruction of life and property by sea
and land might cease."
"War is a bad thing, there's no denying
it," resumed the Captain; " bad enough on
land, where at least you've a solid foundation
under you, but infinitely worse at sea, where
it destroys the few planks that you have
learned to trust to keep you from going to
Davy Jones's. There is no sight so awful to
a sailor as a ship on fire, even when, as in
this instance, you know there is no human
4*




42      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
being on board; but there's no use in grumbling."
Our last prize was captured in latitude
4~ 42' north, and longitude 28~ 24' west, and
was valued at thirty-six thousand dollars.
We had now on board about forty prisoners; ten had joined the Shenandoah, and we
were anxious to dispose of the others.
An opportunity soon offered. On the following day a sail was discovered, and we
proceeded in chase, under canvas. In about
three hours we came up with her, and found
her to be a Danish brig, bound to Rio Janeiro. An officer was dispatched on board to
ascertain if the Captain would take what
prisoners we had into port. He consented
to take a part of them, and we immediately
sent on board those we had first captured,
with our best wishes for a pleasant passage
and a speedy arrival at home.
The transfer occupied an hour or two, and
on parting we presented the Danish Captain




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    43
with a fine chronometer we had captured
from one of our prizes.
He was much pleased with the gift, and
assured us he should always retain it, in
remembrance of the Shenandoah and the
cause.she represented.
On the 10th we captured in 4~ 20' north
latitude, and 26~ 39' west longitude, the brig
Susan, from Cardiff, bound to South America,
but owned in New York, with a cargo of
coal. She was valued at five thousand four
hundred and thirty-six dollars.  She was
scuttled. Two of her men joined us; the
rest were disposed of as our other prisoners
had been.
We had captured four vessels within the
last ten days, which, all things considered,
we were disposed to regard as a fair business. We hoped, however, to do something
more to make Uncle Sam remember us before
going into the South Atlantic, for we were
now in the track of ships bound out from




44:   THE SIHENAND OAH; OR THE
New York and other ports in the United
States to San Francisco and South America.
On the 12th we captured the Kate Prince,
a large clipper ship of about eleven hundred
tons burthen, from Cardiff, with a neutral
cargo, and ransomed her for forty thousand
dollars on condition of her taking the rest of
our prisoners into port. If our last prize had
not had two ladies on her passenger list, I
believe we should have burned her, but we
had a pair of our fair enemies already in
charge, and ungallant as the admission may
sound, we had no desire to increase the number, through doubts of our ability to make
them comfortable, I may add, in extenuation
of our apparent churlishness.
By three o'clock the following morning our
ship was once more free from prisoners, much
to our satisfaction, and the Kate Prince proceeded on her way.
The following day, Sunday, we discovered
a sail which had the appearance of a little




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    45
Yankee schooner. She was a splendid sailer,
and it required several hours to overhaul her,
but at length, finding escape impossible, she
showed the Stars and Stripes, and the usual
blank cartridge fired across her bows, brought
her to. It turned out to be another Boston
craft, the Lizzie M. Stacey, bound to the Sandwich Islands, round the Cape of Good Hope.
No one but a Yankee skipper would thus
venture half way round the world in such a
vessel, but the old sea-dog did not appear to
think such a trip anything worth mentioning.
Something to this intent and purport, I remarked as the old fellow came on board our
ship, and was rewarded with a contemptuous
laugh.
"Shiver my timbers! if there an't the
most lubberly set of sailors afloat in these
latitudes that I ever fell in with," he said, adding a tough old nautical oath or two by way
of emphasis. " Why day before yesterday, I
run across the bows of a big English ship




46      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
bound to Australia, and all hands made a rush
forward when I hove in sight as though I'd
been the Sea Serpent or some other almighty
curiosity. They invited me to come on board
but there was a stiff breeze blowing at the
time, and I'd no notion of losing a good run
for the sake of showing off a little before a
lot of chaps who seem to think nothing less
than a seventy-four is safe to cross the ocean
in."
"Faix, and the ould man was right," remarked the first mate, a genuine wild Irishman, aside to one of our men; " the dirthy
blackguards wouldn't have appreciated the
compliment of a visit from us, and what's
more, my hearty, if we'd had ten guns aboard
there, you wouldn't have got us without a bit
of a shindy, or if the breeze had been a bit
stiffer, we'd given her the square sail, and all
h-l couldn't have caught her."
There was truth in this. Had she been
armed the Lizzie M. Stacey would certainly




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    47
never have surrendered without a tussle,
and with a favorable wind, I am inclined to
believe she would have shown us a clean pair
of heels. Could we have spared the necessary men to man her, we should have put one
of our rifle guns on board and commissioned
her as a tender to our ship, but as yet we
were too short-handed for such an achievement, and she was reluctantly doomed to the
same fate as her predecessors. Two of her
crew joined us, and the rest were placed in
the top-gallant forecastle in single irons. The
officers of course received the customary
courtesies which, however, were pretty much
thrown away upon the Captain, who was the
most unapproachable old curmudgeon I ever
encountered. To get a civil word out of him
was simply impossible, but the Mate took
kindly to his altered fortunes, and, in a day
or two, could spin a kuffer with any one on
board.
Our last prize was valued at fifteen thou



48         THE SHENANDOAH.
sand dollars, and was captured in 1~ 43' north
latitude, and 28~ 24/ west longitude.
Our cruise in the North Atlantic was now
finished. It had been brief in duration, but
enough had been accomplished to give the
Shenandoah such a reputation as would be
apt to insure her officers and crew anything
but a cordial reception from one of Uncle
Sam's cruisers, should we have the luck to
fall in with one.




CHAPTER III.
FROM THE " LINE " TO ST. PAUL'S ISLAND.
ON the 15th of November we crossed the
line, and the usual ceremonies attendant
upon that event on board a man-of-war were
not neglected.
It is a custom as old as sailing, for aught I
know, for every armed vessel on passing the
equator to receive a visit from his aquatic
Godship Neptune, who is supposed to hold
his court in that locality, suffering no ship to
pass until he has satisfied himself by personal inspection that there are none on board
but regularly initiated sailors; that is, those
who have previously crossed the line and
submitted to his initiatory rites. We had a
number of novices among officers and men,
5        (49)




50      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
and consequently the event was anticipated
with even more than ordinary interest.
It was just gone eight bells in the evening
when a rough voice over the bows was heard
hailing the ship.
" MWhat's wanting? " said the officer of the
deck.
" Heave to. I want to come on board,"
was the surly response.
The requisite orders were given, and a few
moments after a gigantic figure was seen
ascending the side, dressed in an oil-skin
coat, and wearing a wig of Manilla yarn,
which, at a little distance, had the appearance of yellowish curly hair.
He was accompanied by another grotesque
figure representing his wife, and the two
were followed by a third, who was supposed
to be His Majesty's confidential barber, provided with the utensils of his calling, which
consisted of a bucket of slush, and a preposterous razor, about three feet long, manufac



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    51
tured from  an iron hoop.  IHis Godship
carried an immense speaking-trumpet under
his arm, a trident in his right hand, and
stepped upon the deck with all the dignity
his assumed position warranted.
"What ship is this." he said, in an authoritative voice.
"The Confederate cruiser Shenandoah,"
replied the officer of the deck, touching his
hat.
"Are there any of my subjects on board
who have never crossed the line before?"
was the next question.
"There are several, I believe."
"Bring them before me! " continued his
Godship, and thereupon such of the company
as had already passed the ordeal dispersed in
search of the novices.
We found them  stowed away in every
imaginable place of concealment, but they
were scented out, and dragged before the
Ocean Deity, where they were solemnly lath



52      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
ered from the slush-bucket, and shaved with
the iron hoop, according to immemorial
usage.
The frolic was kept up until a late hour,
and an additional zest was added to the festivities by the fact that two or three of our
youngsters actually believed that they had
been in the presence of the veritable Neptune, and it was only after the expiration of
a considerable time that they discovered that
they had been imposed upon by some of their
own shipmates.
We were now steering to the southward,
in the hope of falling in with vessels bound
from San Francisco to New York, round
Cape Horn.
We had struck the southeast trade winds,
which wafted us along at the rate of nine or
ten knots an hour, with all sail set.  The
weather was delightful, and in high spirits
we sped merrily on our way.
Some days had now elapsed without bring



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    53
ing us in sight of any sail we might lawfully
capture, but the time could scarcely be said
to hang heavily upon our hands. We had
an excellent library on board comprising
over six hundred volumes, and with reading,
social games, and story telling, we managed
to pass the period of inactivity quite felicitously.
Of course our lookouts were constantly on
the alert for Yankee craft which are readily
recognized by the peculiarity of their rig;
but although ships of every other nationality
were flitting around us from time to time,
those we sought failed to cross our path.
Occasionally we exchanged signals and reckoning with those we met by the way, but for
the most part we avoided social intercourse.
The 26th found us in 27~ 30' south latitude, an excellent run from the line.
About six o'clock that afternoon we gave
chase to a vessel which however proved to be
English, much to the annoyance of every




54      THE SHENAIVDOAH; OR THE
one, as we were beginning to feel impatient
for another dash at the enemy, and our prisoners, especially Captain Archer of the Lizzie
M. Stacey, were anxiously hoping that the
next prize would be ransomed upon condition
of taking them into port.
On the 28th we sighted several sails, but
our Captain, for some reason best known to
himself, did not give chase to any of them.
On the 4th of December we discovered a
craft which had the general appearance of an
American, and we stood in chase and overhauled her, the United States flag flying at
our peak. She flew the Italian colors, but
looked so thoroughly Yankee that we sent a
couple of officers, dressed in blue uniform, to
keep up our assumed character on board, to
have a look at her papers.
It turned out as we feared.  She was
American built, but had been sold to the
Italians to keep her out of the hands of




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      55
enterprising gentlemen in our line of business.
About four o'clock the same afternoon,
another sail was reported, which for a time
puzzled us all, until one of our old sea-dogs
pronounced her to be an American whaler,
which eventually proved to be the case.
As we steamed near her she hoisted the
American flag, whereupon we stopped our
engines and sent a boat with a prize crew on
board, and in a little time, her Captain, having his papers in charge, was with us.
She was a bluff-bowed, square-sterned,
old-fashioned craft, from New Bedford, of
about four hundred tons, and had been whaling for nearly fifty years. She had been out
about four months, and had taken but one
whale, which she was engaged in " cutting
in" when we captured her.
Her commander, Captain Worth, was one
of the finest specimens of an American sailor
I have ever met. Brave, generous, and open



56      THIE S HENA NDOA; OR THE
hearted, he was one of those men who inspire an enemy with respect and a feeling of
regret that the stern necessity of war involves
their capture. IHe had been a shipmaster
twenty-five years, and of course could not
avoid feeling deeply the destruction of his
old craft in which he had faced so many
perils, and earned an honorable fame in his
calling. But nothing of this appeared in his
face as he came over the side and saluted us
with a courteous "Good afternoon, gentlemen.  You have a fine ship here for a
cruiser."
"Yes, sir," responded the officer of the
deck, " and that vessel of yours looks as if
she was familiar with travelling salt water."
"Yes, she was laid on the stocks before
you and I were thought of," he answered,
leaning nonchalantly against the bulwarks,
and thereupon fell into an easy and affable
conversation with the officer of the deck,
upon whales and whaling, as naturally as




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    57
though we were a brother whaler, and he
had come on board of us for a " gam."
Ere he left us, he had won the respect and
esteem of every man on board the Shenandoah.
It is generally the case that whalers are
better provisioned than any other class of
vessels; consequently we considered the present opportunity a good one to replenish our
own stores, and therefore lay alongside our
prize till morning, her crew  in thle mean
time being placed in irons, - a precautionary
measure we disliked to adopt, but our own
safety required it.
As soon as it was light, the whaler's crew
were released, and assisted, with the best
grace they could, in transferring their own
supplies, consisting principally of flour and
bread, to the Shenandoah. This occupied
several hours, and during the time a number
of our officers went off to see what a whaler
was like, and inspect the blubber which had




58      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
been cut from the sea-monster which was
still moored alongside.
Late in the afternoon, having secured whatwe desired from the Barque Edward, we set
her on fire, and got under way, taking three
of her boats in tow and steering for the Island
of Tristan d'Acunha, where our Captain had
resolved to land what prisoners he had on
board.
Early the following morning the island
was in sight looming up some eight thousand
three hundred feet above the level of the sea,
and by eight o'clock we had it on our port
beam. Steaming slowly round to discover a
suitable place for landing, we at last saw the
English flag flying from a flag-staff on shore,
and hove to, and the boats we had been towing were hauled alongside, and the prisoners
with their clothes and bedding placed in
them.
While this was going on, we observed a
boat coming off froml the shore, and ere long




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    59
she was rocking under our quarter, and its
principal occupant was offering for sale milk,
eggs, chickens, and fresh meat, commodities I
need hardly say for which we were quite
ready to barter.
It was the first time the Islanders had seen
the flag that floated from our peak, and to
what nationality it belonged they could not
imagine, nor was their astonishment in any
wise diminished when we informed them that
our ship was a Confederate cruiser, and we
had thirty-five prisoners which we proposed
contributing to their population.
"And where the devil did you get your
prisoners? " queried one of the mystified
natives.
",From  a whaler not far from here," responded one of our officers.
"Just so, to be sure; and what became of
the whaler?"
" We burned her up."




60      THE SIHENANDOAH; OR THE
" Whew! Is that the way you dispose of
what vessels you fall in with? "
"If they belong to the United States; not
otherwise."
"Well, my hearty, you know your own
business, but my notion is that these sort of
pranks will get you into the devil's own muss
before you are through with it. What your
quarrel with the United States is I don't
know, but I swear I don't believe they'll
stand this kind of work."
The astonishment our proceedings occasioned the residents of Tristan  d'Acunha
(there are only about forty of them all told),
and their evident conviction that our calling
was not likely to be a very safe one, did not
stand in the way of their commercial proclivities, and we soon struck up a bargain for a
quantity of fresh beef, which, however, had
to be killed before it could be delivered; but
the time was disposed of by getting the prisoners safely off, and seeing that they were




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.       61
provided with coffee, tea, sugar, and all other
articles necessary for their temporal sojourn.
At last -the Islanders came off with the
provisions we had purchased, and received in
exchange flour and pilot bread.  We also
procured of them a couple of sheep, and
after making these additions to our commissariat, we steamed away, leaving the island
on our starboard quarter.
This last prize furnished us with a new
phase of cruising experience.  Heretofore
our prisoners had been transferred to some
prize selected for the purpose, and sent on
their way, if not rejoicing, at least reasonably
well. satisfied with such a method of egress
from one of the unpleasant predicaments of
war; but now for the first time we had left
our captured foes on an island of the South
Atlantic, thousands of miles from their
homes, where they might have to remain for
many weary months, ere a passing ship
would take them off (though it was of course
6




62      THE SHENANDOA H; OR THE
possible they might be relieved in a week),
and none of us were quite satisfied with the
part we were necessitated to play, but I question whether our Yankee acquaintances stood
much in need of our sympathy after all.
They had the free range of a charming
island, where reigned perennial summer;
besides, there were a number of the gentler
sex in want of mates, I learned, and where
there are pretty women so circumstanced,
there can sailors be happy.
I may mention, en passant, that they have
rather a primitive way of celebrating the
nuptial contract on Tristan d'Acunha. The
oldest inhabitant, one of the ubiquitous sons
of Connecticut, of course, who stranded there
some five and twenty years ago, and drives a
thriving trade in beef and poultry with the
whalers that put in there, has assumed to
himself the prerogative of uniting in the
holy bonds of wedlock the matrimonially
disposed, and he performs the service, I un



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER:    63
derstood, as much to the satisfaction of the
parties interested as it could be done by surpliced priest before the chancel rails.
On the following day we discovered that
our engine was injured, one of the propeller
bands being broken in two places, and it was
at first rumored that we would have to put
into some port for repairs; but after a thorough investigation it was decided to endeavor
to temporarily remedy the difficulty where we
were, and in the meantime to depend upon
our canvas.
I ought to have mentioned that before
capturing the barque Edward, we overhauled
a sail, the Adelaide, from Baltimore, and she
was about being consigned to the fate of her
predecessors that had fallen into our hands,
when we discovered that she belonged to a
Mr. Pendergrass, a Baltimorean and a Southern sympathizer, which saved her from sacrifice, but the discovery was only made after
her bulkheads had been demolished and a




64     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
good deal of miscellaneous damage done preparatory to burning. The cargo, however,
not being the property of any of our friends,
was ransomed for forty thousand dollars.
On the 14th we were scudding along under
topsails, at the rate of ten or eleven knots an
hour, with a high sea running, which increased tremendously as we neared the Cape
of Good Hope. To any one but a sailor it
would hardly have seemed possible that a
vessel could live in such a sea as we encountered in this locality.  It ran absolutely
mountains high, and had not the Shenandoah
been an excellent sea-boat, among her other
admirable characteristics, we should have
felt considerable apprehension, although instances are comparatively rare of vessels
foundering from sheer stress of weather.
Numerous birds were following in our wake,
and among them were the albatross, cape
pigeon, and stormy petrel, or, as the latter




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    65
are better known among seamen, Mother
Carey's chickens.
On the 15th, our reckoning showed us to
be about five hundred and fifty miles to the
southward and westward of the Cape and the
ocean still pursuing its mad antics with unabated fury, but over it our gallant vessel
scud, as easily as the birds skimmed the air
astern.
Our position, however, was becoming anything but comfortable. To get a meal in
Christian fashion was the next thing to impossible. The steward, after much devious navigating would succeed at last in placing it upon
the table, and the next moment a heavy lurch
of the ship would scatter dishes and contents
in every direction. Once, not satisfied with
such a piece of impertinence, old Neptune
sent a sea over our starboard quarter, which
came pouring down upon us like a cataract,
and the remnant of our dinner previously disposed around the cabin floor by the first acci6*




66      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
dent, was by the second, submerged under a
couple of feet of water.
During the prevalence of a heavy and continuous gale like the present, a man-of-war
presents a curious scene.  The battery is
secured with extra tackles, preventer-braces
and backstays are -rove and taughtened,
hatches battened down, and men are stationed
at the relieving tackles in case the wheel
ropes part, to prevent the ship from broaching to.
These precautionary measures taken, or
perhaps the ship is hove to under close-reefed
topsails, fore storm staysail, main trysail, and
a tarpaulin in the mizzen rigging, little parties
of men may be seen congregated on different
parts of the berth deck, each listening to some
tough yarn, spun by some old shell back of
their number.
Suddenly the sound of the,boatswain's call
is heard, sharp and shrill above the howling
of the tempest, and for the moment conversa



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.      67
tion ceases, and every man anxiously awaits
to learn the nature of the summons. It is
nothing any more serious this time than to
call all hands to the agreeable duty of " splicing the main brace," and in an instant there
is a general rush for the deck, where the grog
is served to each in turn.
To a landsman it may seem the height of
recklessness to serve out any intoxicating
beverage at such a time, to a ship's company,
but the omission of such an item in the routine of their lives would probably engender a
general feeling of dissatisfaction more to be
dreaded than any trifling excess in which they
would be likely to indulge.
On that day the storm culminated. It was
sublime beyond description, and we drove
before it, at the rate of eleven knots an hour,
under close reefed topsails and reefed foresail,
About five o'clock that afternoon, we took a
sea about amidships, which poured down the
main hatch, to the summary discomfiture of




68      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
a knot of the boys who were enjoying themselves by listening to a "twister" of more than
ordinary interest.
Such were some of the specimens of " life
on the ocean wave," that we encountered while
working up toward the Cape of Good Hope,
a name suggestive of good omens, but our
experience did not tend to confirm the reputation that has gone abroad concerning the
peaceful proclivities of the elements thereabouts.
On the 16th, it was still blowing a gale
from the northward and westward, and we
were running before it at the rate of eleven
or twelve knots an hour under a light spread
of canvas. About eight o'clock in the evening a tremendous sea came over our quarter,
carrying away everything movable in its track,
and thoroughly drenching about half our officers and crew. The ship now seemed to be
flooded fore and aft, the greater part of the
time, but such good precautionary measures




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    69
had been taken that comparatively little water
found its way below.
At twelve o'clock the next day, a wave of
mountain dimensions came surging down
upon us, and rearing its mighty crest, like a
very demon of the ocean intent upon our
destruction, discharged a cataract of water,
whose weight could only have been estimated
by hundreds of tons, upon our devoted deck.
It was a moment of fearful anxiety. Fore
and aft the water stood level with the top of
the bulwarks, — the ship lost her headway
and trembled as did Goliah when the pebble
from the shepherd boy's sling penetrated his
brazen head-gear, and like Goliah she would
in a few brief moments have sunk to rise no
more, had not our dauntless crew in obedience
to an order from the officer of the deck,
uttered as coolly as though it was the most
ordinary occasion instead of a matter of life
and death, sprung forward with axes, and
dashed out the ports, thus affording egress to




70      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
the mass of water which was pressing us
down, like the hand of doom, into the treacherous bosom of the Atlantic.
That day the gale finally blew itself out,
but our troubles were as yet by no means
over, for as the wind went down, the sea increased, if that was possible, and for three or
four succeeding days, the Shenandoah was
buffeted, tossed, and knocked about, as an
empty bottle might be driven in the wake of
a steamship, but we managed to hold on our
course toward Australia.
It had been my fortune to spend four
Christmas days at sea, far removed from all the
festivities and merry-making that characterizes its advent upon shore, but my Christmas
in the Shenandoah, off the Cape of Good
tIope, was the most miserable travesty of the
festival I ever celebrated. We were boxing
about, as I have described, at the mercy of old
Neptune's irate temper, drenched with water
the greater part of the time, and generally




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.     71
and profoundly miserable, when the anniversary of the day that brought "peace on earth,
good will to men," dawned upon us. My
thoughts would revert to home, to the family
gathering at the Christmas dinner, to the old
church with its evergreen decorations, and to
the evening spent in fun and frolic.
Such was the home picture, and a more
complete reverse of it could hardly be imagined, than was presented by our ship and
company.  In the place of pendant evergreens my eyes rested upon the smoky, swaying lamps, still dimly burning in the ward
room, and instead of receiving the time-honored salutations from family friends, and
bright-faced girls, whose lips give so sweet an
intonation to the old phrase, I heard it from
rough-bearded men, sunburned and swarthy,
and in place of preparing for a gay holiday,
I donned my sou'wester and moodily made
my way to the deck to stand a four hours'
watch.




72      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
Our cook, good, conscientious man that he
was, put all his science in requisition, and
strained his resources to the utmost, to
achieve a good dinner, but the old goose
upon which he tried his skill, was, I verily
believe, the identical fowl that Commodore
Noah took with him  on his first and last
cruise. All that fire could do to render
digestible that tough old specimen, was done,
and in due time we grimly devoured him, but
not before he had been several times rescued
from his native element beneath the table,
where he had been tossed by the heaving of
the ship.
My solemn advice to the world at large is,
never to go off the Cape of Good Hope in a
cruiser to enjoy Christmas.
On the 29th our eyes were greeted once
more by the welcome sight of a ship. As it
was astern; we shortened sail and waited for
her to come up with us.
By three o'clock she was near enough to




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    73
"read bunting," and by way of testing her
nationality, we showved the English flag. Up
went the Stars and Stripes to the peak of the
stranger, a welcome sight to us, whereupon
we lowered our borrowed ensign, and, much
to the consternation, I have no doubt, of our
new acquaintance, ran up the flag of the
Confederacy, and fired a blank cartridge
across her bows.. She immediately hove to,
and we sent a boat to bring off the Captain
and his papers. The Captain of the stranger
soon reached us, and reported his craft to be
the barque Delphine, of Bangor, Maine,
seventy days out from London, in ballast, and
bound for Akyab, Arabia, for a cargo of rice.
The Captain informed us that his wife and
child were on board, and also that his steward was encumbered with a' helpmate. The
Captain's wife was ill, and with such a sea
running, he feared it would be dangerous to
attempt to bring her off.
Captain Waddell expressed his regret at




74      THE SHIENANDOA.H; OR THE
the inconvenience to which he was compelled
to subject the ladies, but assured him that no
danger should befall them, as our life-boat
with six good oarsmen, should be detailed for
the service.
To object was of course useless, so with
as good a grace as possible our prisoners set
out in the life-boat on their unpleasant expedition.
In due time the life-boat returned with the
two women and little boy, the Captain of the
prize and such articles of personal property
as he desired to retain. The Captain's wife
woman like, brought with her a canary bird
in its cage, and if a bandbox containing her
best bonnet had been added to her baggage,
it would have been complete.
Soon after two or three other boats put off
from the barque containing her crew, who
were at once confined in single irons, and
placed in the top-gallant forecastle.
One of our officers with two or three men




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    75
had remained on board the Delphine to fire
her as soon as her own company had been
safely removed; and we, of the Shenandoah,
were now anxiously pacing the decks, watching for the first indications that this duty had
been performed. Night closed around us before the first forked tongue of fire, issuing
from the companion-way of the fated barque,
warned us that the destroying element had
commenced its work. Rapidly the flames
gathered headway, casting a fierce, lurid
glow over the heaving bosom of the ocean;
from doors, windows, and hatchways they
burst forth like the vengeful spirit of destruction, wound up the spars, stretched out upon
the yards, swiftly enveloping shrouds, sails,
and halyards in one splendid, fiery ruin; and
standing out, strongly revealed against the
darkening sky, the burning vessel surged and
tossed, a holocaust to the God of War.
But while all this was passing, the lookouts were closely scanning the watery ex



76      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
panse that intervened between us and the
burning ship, to discover our boat returning.
The darkness of the night and the heavy sea
that was running, rendered us unpleasantly
apprehensive that she might have swamped
on her passage back, and as a precautionary
measure, lanterns were run up in the rigging
to advise them of our whereabouts. At last
we saw them, just rising on the summit of a
mighty wave, less than a hundred yards to
windward, and presently after we distinguished the rough voice of the officer in command hailing us.
" Ahoy, there!" he said; "throw us a
line!"
The request was complied with,  a coil
of rope sailed away from the deck of the
Shenandoah through the air, rendered half
opaque by the spray of breaking waves; it
was caught by our comrades,-in another
moment they were alongside, and presently




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    77
after we had them safe on board, and were
once more standing on our course.
The after-cabin on the starboard side was
appropriated to the Captain of our last prize
and his wife, and in every respect they were
treated far more like passengers than prisoners, but never was courtesy more completely
thrown away upon an enemy. They not
only utterly failed to appreciate, in any degree, the manner in which they were treated
while they were with us, but indulged in the
most scandalous romance at our expense after
they got on shore. This was all well enough
no doubt, but if our friend of the Delphine
had fallen into our hands a second time, we,
knowing the reputation he had given us,
would have taught him by experience ere we
parted company, something of the dark side
of the picture which a prisoner of war has
occasion to inspect.
For an hour or more the Captain of the
Delphine paced up and down the deck, ac7*




78      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
companied by his wife, watching his blazing
vessel, now rapidly dropping below the horizon. I could not help pitying him. He
was a third owner, and probably had there
invested the savings of half a lifetime of patient toil. To see the fruits of so many years
swept away in an hour, might well try the
philosophy of the best of men.
The 30th of December found us still standing toward Australia, with all sail set on a
bowline. It was one of the most beautiful
days we had seen since leaving England. The
air was soft and balmy, like the month of
May in our own sunny South, and the heavy
sea we had encountered for so many days
seemed to have exhausted its mad passion,
and had died away into the long undulating
swell almost invariably encountered off soundings.
During my watch that morning, I had a
long conversation with the Captain of our
last prize, in the course of which he informed




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    79
me that he was a good deal chagrined when
he first came on board of us and discovered
to what an incipient man-of-war he had surrendered, without an effort at escape. He
had expected, when he came off to us, to find
a cruiser with all her guns in working order,
and men to work them, - a craft, in fact, that
in five minutes' time would be ready to blow
him out of water, but " distance lent enchantment to the view," he discovered, when he
saw our real condition, and he bitterly lamented that he had not at least made the
attempt to show us his heels.
I very much incline to the opinion that had
he shaken out his canvas, going at the rate
he was, he would have given us the slip
before, short-handed as we were, we could
have made sail, or brought our guns to bear.
The new year, wearing all the languid
beauty of a Southern clime, opened upon me
just as I was about to be relieved from duty
on deck. The weather was fine, with a light,




80      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
variable wind blowing, and the stars threw
their silvery shimmer over the quiet water.
Every one on board, save the officer of the
deck, the quartermaster, the lookout, and the
man at the wheel, were wrapped in slumber.
Such were my surroundings when the ship's
bell, striking the hour of twelve, announced
the death of eighteen hundred sixty-four and
the birth of eighteen hundred sixty-five.
Many thousand miles from home and
friends, with the broad Atlantic all around
us, and our adventurous career just begun,
we did not forget the day, and at eight
o'clock in the morning we unfurled our banner to the breeze, and there at our peak it
waved, the emblem of a young nation which
for four years had struggled, God only knows
with what self-denying patience and resolution, for liberty.
The next day -we sighted the Island of St.
Paul, in the Indian Ocean, and stood in with




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    81
a view of regulating our chronometer. By
one o'clock we had approached as near its
southern extremity as we desired to venture,
and let go our anchor.




CHAPTER  IV.
FROM ST. PAUL S TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.
ST. PAUL'S ISLAND is situated several
hundred miles to the eastward of the
Cape of Good Hope, and is comparatively
seldom visited. To sight land is always
agreeable after a three months' cruise, and
there were many applicants for permission to
go on shore, this being the first opportunity
that had offered since we set sail from Madeira, and excepting the Island of Tristan
d'Acunha, was the first land we had seen.
Leave was extended to a number of the
officers, and they presently pulled off in one
of the quarter boats, well provided with all
the requisite paraphernalia for fishing, having
in contemplation a raid upon the finny deni(82'




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    83
zens of the ocean, which seemed to have a
peculiar penchant for congregating near these
shores. There was many a longing glance
cast after the receding boat by the weary voyagers, who had been so long confined within
the walls of our floating fortress, and more
than one discontented face might have been
seen moving up and down the deck until the
little craft, with its more fortunate occupants,
rounded a point of land which jutting far out
into the sea, formed a partially landlocked bay
and disappeared.
Ere long the lookout at mast-head reported
land to the northward, and an inspection of
the chart showed it to be the Island of Amsterdam, distant from St. Paul's about forty
miles. The Island of St. Dennis makes up
the group, and is the residence of the Governor whose official sway extends over the
three.
Governor Rondoney was formerly an officer
in the French army, and is a gentleman of




84      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
considerable ability and personal popularity.
He is said to keep up a fine establishment
and to wear his honors right bravely.
The climate of these islands is delightful,
and with a fine soil, and all the auxiliaries
peculiar to a semi-tropical country, I was
somewhat surprised to learn that they were
but sparsely inhabited.  Their out-of-the-way
location has no doubt something to do with
it, as that circumstance would naturally deter
foreigners from settling there to any great
extent. They carry on a desultory trade with
Madagascar, and some ports on the mainland
of the eastern coast of Africa, but this comprises all their commerce, and nearly all of
the few vessels that touch there have no more
important business than the regulation of
their chronometers, an important item with
the vessels to be sure, but not a very productive source of revenue to Governor Rondoney's dominions.
A little before six o'clock the boat re



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    85
turned, literally loaded down with fish of
excellent quality, and the excursionists were
accordingly in the best of spirits. They paid
dearly for their amusement, however. All
of them were fearfully sunburned by the
strong reflection from the water, and there
was not a pair of hands that had not been
thoroughly blistered by their long pull at the
oars. They had hoped to capture a seal or
two, as these animals are frequently found in
the vicinity, but failing in this, they turned
covetous eyes upon a penguin which they
found in the possession of three old French
shellbacks, left there some time before by a
wandering ship, with whom they struck up
an acquaintance and brought his aquatic fowlship off in triumph.
These three French worthies had things
very much their own way on St. Paul's, they
being in fact the only residents. They were
engaged in catching and salting fish, with
which to freight a vessel then absent on a
8




86      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
voyage to Madagascar, where a ready market
was found for that kind of provender.
Before we sailed, they came off to pay us
a visit, and brought with them a quantity of
chickens, which they exchanged with us for
pocket handkerchiefs, an article of which they
certainly stood in need, as indeed they did of
various other etceteras of civilized life, but
upon the whole, the old fellows seemed to be
rather enjoying themselves in this Robinson
Crusoish way.
The other two islands are not quite so badly off by way of inhabitants, and the one
which has the honor to be the residence of
His Excellency the Governor, boasts of a
considerable village; but if the labor of ruling bears any proportion to the number of
the ruled, I incline to the opinion that Governor Rondoney's official duties are not arduous.
I should have mentioned before that when
we first sighted St. Paul's, the Captain of our




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    87
last prize took the conceit into his crotchety
head that we contemplated no less a practical
joke than leaving himself and his company
there with the agreeable prospect of remaining perhaps for years, subsisting as best they
could, ere an opportunity would offer of a
return to the world,
I observed his wife anxiously scanning the
beautiful solitude as we were standing in, and
the tears with which her eyes were heavy
furnished me with a ready clue to the apprehension under which she was suffering.
" Did you suppose, Madam," I said, by
way of setting her fears at rest, " that you
were to be left in this out-of-the-way spot? "
" That was my husband's expectation," she
answered, "and I presumed of course that
his fears were not without foundation."
" Let me assure you to the contrary then,
and be good enough to inform me how your
husband or yourself came to imagine that the
commander of the Shenandoah was capable




88      THE SHENAN.DOA H; OR THE
of leaving a whole ship's company in such a
place."
She hesitated for a moment, and then, with
a furtive glance at my face, said:
"Why, they tell terrible stories at home
about the outrages committed upon defenceless-men and women by your rebel cruisers.
The papers have been full of, them, and I
naturally supposed they were founded on
fact, at least."
I could not restrain a smile at the naivete
with which our lady prisoner admitted the
entertainment of a pretty well-defined conviction that she was in the hands of veritable
pirates, who were only restrained from flying
the black flag. with its pleasingly suggestive
skull and cross-bones, because, for the time
being, it suited their convenience to sail
under another, little if any more reputable in
her estimation; but I suppressed any stronger
demonstrations of merriment, and upon my
expressing a desire to see some of the litera



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    89
ture to which she referred, she brought from
her state-room a file of an illustrated New
York publication, wherein was a marvellous
narrative, written by a lady with a multitude
of initials. I subsequently read it through,
greatly amused, I must confess. at its stupendous absurdities. In the course of the story
the Confederate cruiser Alabama was introduced, and her officers and crew represented
as a pack of rascals, whom Morgan the buccaneer, or the leader of the Indian Sepoys
would have expelled from their several commands, lest they should become contaminated
by evil associations.
The grotesque blunders by the authoress
when she undertook to mount the nautical
horse, furnished a theme of amusement for
the wardroom for many a day.
Having corrected our chronometers, which,
however, were only found to be a few seconds out of the way, we were about setting
sail when we observed a ship coming round
8*




90      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
the Island, and hauled up to intercept her.
It had been some time since a plump fish
had come to our net, and all earnestly hoped
the stranger might have the honor of belonging to the universal Yankee nation.
As she neared us we showed the English
flag to which she responded by displaying
the flag of the Netherlands; and as a closer
inspection made her out thoroughly unAmerican in appearance, we allowed her to
proceed on her voyage unmolested.
The next day, January 3rd, we set studding sails for the first time, but were too
short handed to do it in scientific, man-of-war
style. We cherished the hope that the fine
weather that had at last overtaken us was to
continue, but the hope proved delusive, and
the next morning found us under single
reefed top-sails, a wet deck fore and aft, and
hatches battened down to keep the water
from the berth deck.
On the 5th the wind moderated, and we




LAST CON'EDERATE CRUISER.    91
once more cracked on all sail, anxious to
reach Australia as soon as possible. The
prisoners had naturally begun to tire of their
unaccustomed inactivity, and to pine for the
moment when they would be once more free,
although they were made, in every respect,
as comfortable as circumstances permitted.
The Captain and his wife had the privilege
of walking the poop deck whenever they
chose, and availed themselves of the permission very freely; but the old fellow made
himself so continually and unmitigatedly disagreeable that our officers perforce avoided
him, and as heartily wished to be rid of him
and his ship's company as they were to discontinue our acquaintance.
That afternoon we overhauled the ship
Nimrod, of American build, but transferred
to British owners out of compliment to the
Confederate Navy, a mark of respect which
we reciprocated by not taking the liberty of
changing her place of destination.




92      THE SHENAiNDOAH; OR THE
Her captain, however, a grand-looking old
fellow, with tremendous white whiskers,
which gave him something of the general
look of a venerable polar bear, came off in
his gig, to return the call of our boarding officer, and brought with him a dozen of fine
old Otard as a present to Captain Waddell.
The compliment was fully appreciated, and
a scene of festivity followed on board the
Shenandoah that I shall not soon forget. It
was but a brief sojourn that the Captain of
the Nimrod made with us, but for weeks afterwards his name was often coupled by our officers with enthusiastic praise, and I only trust
he has as pleasant reminiscences of his visit
to the rebel cruiser.
For some time afterwards nothing of special
interest occurred. It was the same monotonous story of uneventful ocean life.  The
lookouts regularly mounted to their perches
and swept the horizon with watchful eyes for
wayfarers, that we might lawfully bid to pro



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    93
ceed no farther, but none such crossed our
path.
At last our reckoning showed us to be within a day or two's sail of Australia, that mighty
island continent of the Indian seas. Whereupon we got our engine into operation and
steamed for port.
On the 25th, ninety days out from Madeira,
we sighted land, and a few hours later we
passed through Port Philip Heads, the entrance to Hobson's Bay.  Here the pilot
boarded us, and very much astonished was
that functionary when he learned the name
and character of the vessel he had in charge,
which it seemed had been reported as the
Ship Royal Standard, fifty odd days out from
London, but this erroneous impression was
soon corrected by a telegraph, and we steamed
on up the Bay at the rate of nine knots an
hour passing a multitude of yachts, and
pleasure boats of various descriptions, filled
with an eager multitude, all apparently de



94         THE SHENANDOAH.
lighted to see such a ship with the Confederate flag flying, and about six o'clock we
dropped our anchor off Sandridge, a smalltown about two miles from Melbourne.




CHAPTER V.
OUR TARRY AT MELBOURNE.
AS soon as it became generally known in
Melbourne that a Confederate cruiser
had arrived in the offing, a scene of excitement was inaugurated which baffles all adequate description. Crowds of people were
rushing hither and thither, seeking authentic
information concerning the stranger, and ere
we had been an hour at anchor, a perfect
fleet of boats was pulling toward us from
every direction.
As yet, however, no one was permitted to
board us. It was still somewhat problematical what sort of a reception was in store for
us from the authorities, and that was a question that had to be answered definitely, ere
(95)




96      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
we permitted our decks to be encumbered by
a crowd of possible enemies under the guise
of curious friends.
There was but one solitary deviation from
this prohibitory rule respecting visitors. On
one of the many little sail-boats rocking alongside, wvas an old man, whose anxiety to set
foot on our decks would have been painful
had it not been ludicrous. Finding a deaf ear
turned to all his entreaties, as a last resort, he
climbed the spar Qf his little vessel and
watching his opportunity sprang into the
mizzen chains and scrambled on board. There
was something so laughably audacious in
being boarded whether we would or not, by a
single individual, that the officer of the deck
stood gazing at the intruder apparently somewhat at a loss whether it was his duty to surrender the ship, or throw him overboard.
The old fellow took advantage of this momentary hesitation to explain that he was the
only genuine Confederate in the country, which




LAST CONFEDEnRATE CRUISER.      97
circumstance he insisted, entitled him to a
reception on any vessel that flew his country's
flag. His logic was not firstrate, but his coolness and audacity were admirable; and these
prevailing in his favor, he was allowed to
remain, to his exceeding great satisfaction.
As soon as practicable, an officer was dispatched on shore to confer with the authorities, and obtain permission for our ship to
remain and procure some necessary repairs.
He returned before midnight, having succeeded in his mission, and the next day the
Shenandoah was thrown open to the inspection of visitors.
As soon as this was known. and the news
seemed to spread like wildfire, steamers and
sail-boats came flocking off towards us, and
all day long, and until far into the evening,
were plying between our ship and the shore,
bringing on board and taking away thousands
of persons, all eager to say that they had visited the famous " rebel pirate."
9




98      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
The multitude of absurd questions with
which we were plied by the gaping crowd,
would have made a stoic laugh. A large
percentage of our visitors seemed to entertain
the notion that the human beings were removed from the vessels we captured, or not,
as convenience dictated, prior to their destruction, and solemnly queried of us as to the
manner in which the Yankees bore themselves while watching the approach of the
devouring element upon a burning ship, or
waiting to be engulfed with a scuttled one.
But notwithstanding this hard character they
were ready to ascribe to us, they vied with
each other in showing us every courtesy in
their power, and the ladies in particular were
well pleased when they could secure the
attendance of a grey uniform to escort them
on their tour of inspection. Of a truth there
are some curious phases in human nature.
The following day we were the recipients
of some more tangible proof of the goodwill




LAS'T CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    99
with which the residents of Melbourne regarded us. Each of our officers received a
railroad pass to go and return from Sandridge
to Melbourne on the Hobson Bay Railroad,
so long as we remained in port. Invitations
to dinners and balls poured in from all sides,
and every one was particular to mention that
he felt the warmest sympathy for the Confederate cause.
All this was agreeable enough if one did
not care to examine too closely into the sincerity of these friendly demonstrations, and
after ninety days at sea, it was pleasant to see
the gay groups of women upon our decks,
but the Shenandoah had come there to refit,
not to be exhibited as a curiosity, and this
continual crush and whirl of visitors put an
effectual check to the real business in hand;
consequently, when the first excitement had
in a measure subsided, we were obliged to
close our doors, and hang out a most inhospitable and peremptory " not at home " to all




100     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
callers. This prohibition caused considerable
heart-burnings, but necessity knows no law,
and upon the whole, our popularity did not
suffer.  Whenever and wherever an officcr
appeared on shore, he was forthwith surrounded by a little conclave of sympathetic
admirers, and had we accepted a tithe of the
invitations we received to indulge in spirituous comforts, we shotld all of us, from the
Captain down to the toughest old shellback
in the forecastle, have been shockingly inebriated during the whole period of our
sojourn.
But, after all, that tarry in Melbourne was
one of the bright reminiscences of our adventurous cruise round the world. I do not suppose so much hospitality ever was or ever
will be shown to another ship in that port,
and there were few if any who sailed in the
Shenandoah, who will not carry to their
graves many pleasant memories of the days
they spent on the shores of Australia.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    101
It must not be supposed, however, that the
entire population favored us, either secretly
or openly. There was a strong party who
firmly adhered to the cause of the United
States, and these looked upon us as contumacious rebels, seeking to overthrow, by the
most unjustifiable and atrocious means, a generous and beneficent government; and could
they have retaliated upon us some of the depredations we had committed upon their merchant marine, our gallant ship would certainly have proceeded no further.
Ere many days we received from a friendly
source, a hint that a plot was on foot to destroy the Shenandoah by means of torpedoes,
and from that time forward three officers
were constantly on watch at the same time,
to prevent any suspicious looking boat or object from approaching. In the night time,
if a boat was discovered in our vicinity, she
was hailed three times, and then if a satisfactory answer was not received, our orders
9*




102     THE S HENANDOAH; OR THE
were peremptory to fire into her; but we
were fortunately never driven to this extremity. Scarcely a night passed that there were
not craft of more than doubtful character flitting around us; but at the first hail they
either pulled off or rendered such an account
of themselves as we were content to accept.
Hundreds of men made application to join
us here, but as we had no right to ship any
in a neutral port, all were denied, reluctantly, as will be readily imagined when it is
remembered how much we desired to augment our numbers.
One day, I remember, an old lady came
aboard with her little son. She was a Southern woman, she said, and her boy had been
born in the Sunny South, and she desired
Captain Waddell to take him as the only contribution she had to offer to her country, and
educate him for the service. It was hard to
deny such a request made in such a way, but
it had to be done, and the woman with her




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   103
little rebel went her way, sorrowful and disappointed.
On the 28th quite an accident occurred.
A party consisting of a lady and two gentlemen were coming off in a sail-boat to visit
us. The wind was blowing strong, and just
as they had rounded our stern the boat capsized. Another boat chanced to be in the
immediate vicinity, and fortunately all were
rescued, having sustained no more serious
damage than a thorough drenching in salt
water, and a very considerable fright. The
gentlemen, notwithstanding their saturated
garments, came on board, but the lady would
not make the venture in her drooping crinoline, and returned to the shore, in a decided
pet at the accident which had prevented her
from inspecting the cruiser.
The next day was Sunday, the grand galaday of the week in Melbourne. We anticipated a crowded ship fore and aft, and were
not disappointed.  The crowd commenced




104     THE SHENA NDOAH; OR THE
coming about nine o'clock in the morning,
and continued to pour in and out in an endless stream until five in the afternoon. More
than seven.thousand people passed over the
railroad from Melbourne to Sandridge, en
route for the Shenandoah, that day, besides
hundreds of others who came by other modes
oi conveyance.
Our ship was simply packed with men and
women from top to bottom the live-long day,
and many were prevented by the pressure,
from getting on board. Indeed, so great was
the curiosity we excited, that had we been
content to stay for six months in Melbourne,
and charged an admission fee of one dollar to
visitors, I believe we could have paid a large
instalment upon the Confederate debt.
It had been determined to make that day
the last of our -receptions, as it was imperative to proceed with our refitting. A gang
of caulkers were procured and went to work
upon our decks with pitch and oakum, and




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   105
preparations were hurried forward to remove
from the ship her stores and such ponderous
furniture as could be readily gotten out to
lessen her draft preparatory to placing her
upon the slip, where her propeller could be
inspected.
A couple of lighters were hauled alongside, and into them were hoisted such articles
as we desired to be rid of for the present, and
this accomplished we proceeded to the slip,
where we remained for ten days, though the
work was expedited as rapidly as possible,
alternate gangs of men working day and
night.
The work was nearly completed, when an
order came from the Governor to seize the
ship, a rumor having been widely circulated
and believed, that we had a number of men
on board, intending to take them to sea and
enlist them, in violation of the well-established
rules of International Law.
His Excellency dispatched a force of about




106     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
one hundred armed men, about half of whom
belonged to the regular city police, and the
rest were of the royal artillery, to enforce his
order, but it is much easier to direct a party
of land lubbers to seize an armed vessel than
for them to execute the mandate.
Captain Waddell peremptorily refused to
permit his ship to be searched, or one of the
Governor's men to come on board, and in
doing this, he simply stood upon his rights
and dignity as the commander of a cruiser, it
being contrary to all precedent, to search a
man-of-war for any purpose. He also wrote
to the Governor, informing him that if the
ship was not released within twenty-four
hours he should pay off his crew, return to
England with his officers and report.the outrage to his own and the English government.
An officer was dispatched with this missive,
which had the desired effect.
The following day, the police and artillery
were withdrawn and we were formally notified




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    107
that we were at liberty to proceed to sea
whenever we desired.
As an offset to this untoward little episode,
an invitation came the same evening from
Balarat, for our officers to attend a ball, given
in their honor by a Mr. Brayton, formerly a
resident of New York, but then one of the
largest mining speculators of that auriferous
neighbor of Melbourne.
The city of Balarat is about forty miles distant from the last named place, with which it
is connected by a railway. Almost the whole
of the area it occupies, has been so thoroughly
perforated and undermined by shafts, sunk in
pursuit of the precious ore, that if the whole
town tumbled through, some fine day, it would
be no matter of especial surprise to any one.
The invitation came most opportunely.
After our little diplomatic escapade with the
authorities we were in the mood for something
in the legitimate merry-making line, and it
was unanimously accepted.




108     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
As the afternoon waned, each representative of the Confederacy, dressed in his best
gala trim, sallied forth, and after a pleasant
railway ride of about two hours' duration, we
landed at Balarat in safety, and took our way
to Craig's Hotel, a most admirably conducted
hostel, where the entertainment was to be
given.
It was decidedly a recherche affair. The
wealth, beauty, and fashion of Balarat were
out in full force, fully intent upon lionizing
and doing honor to a few of the unpretending supporters of a young Government battling for existence with the lusty giant of the
Western world. Every attention that kindness and courtesy could suggest was shown
us, and more than one heart beat quicker at
such convincing evidence of the existence
of sympathy in this country of the Antipodes, for the service in which we were
engaged. Many a grey uniform coat lost its
gilt buttons that night, but we saw them




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    109
again ere we bade a final adieu to Australia,
suspended from watchguards depending from
the necks of bright-eyed women, and we
appreciated the compliment thus paid, not to
us, but to our country.
God bless the gentle women of Melbourne
and Balarat! They are remembered gratefully by the officers of the renowned ship
whose official history was so brief but so
brilliant.
From that time forward until the end of
our sojourn in Australia, it was little else
than one continuous fete. Every place of
public amusement was not only open to us,
but our presence was earnestly solicited by
the managers thereof, probably because we
were  curiosities, and drew  well.  Balls,
soirees, and receptions followed in such rapid
succession that the memory of one was lost
in another, and, in brief, we were so persistently and continually lionized that we were
in serious danger of becoming vain, and
10




110     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
taking the glory to ourselves instead of placing it to the credit of the cause for which we
labored.
Occasionally there was a little break in
this delightful round of pleasures. Once I
recall, a jovial party had assembled at Scott's,
one of the principal hotels of Melbourne,
where, if there was not a feast of reason,
there was an immense flow of soul. There
were perhaps fifteen or twenty collected in
the large parlor, and among them a few of
the officers of our ship, who were indulging
in an occasional patriotic toast.
tWe were just sitting down to a sumptuous
repast when an individual entered, invited
himself to join us, and forthwith commenced
a tirade upon rebels and the Southern Confederacy, making use of such language as
gentlemen seldom submit to in silence.
He had not proceeded in this manner many
minutes ere our Assistant Surgeon sprang to
his feet, and dealt him a blow between the




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   111
eyes that laid him sprawling. In another
instant the fight was general; glasses and
decanters were diverted from their legitimate
use, and turned into missiles of offence;
knives were drawn, and one or two shots
were fired, but fortunately without any serious results, though for a few moments there
was such a scene of excitement and confusion
as I have seldom witnessed; but the Shen'andoah men were victorious, drove their antagonists from the field, and then marched off to
the theatre in a body, to conclude the evening
in a less exhilarating pastime.
Our repairs were at length effected, and by
the aid of a steam-tug, we left the slip amid
the cheers of quite a concourse who had
assembled to see us off, and ships were
saluting in every direction as we moved along
toward our former anchorage.
Before reaching it, we hauled alongside the
John Frazer, a merchant ship from Liverpool, and took in three hundred tons of coal,




112        THE SHENAND OAH.
which, with the four hundred we already had
on board, gave us an ample supply for our
contemplated cruise.
On the morning of the 17th of February,
the steamship Great Britain arrived from
England with passengers, and some astonishment was felt on board wvhen they recognized,
as some of them did, their old acquaintance,
the Sea King, which should have been, according to the clearance papers she received
from the London Custom House, paddling
peacefully on toward Bombay, at anchor
there off Melbourne, transformed into a Confederate cruiser.
The next morning about four o'clock we
hove up our anchor and stood out to sea.




CHAPTER VI.
FROM MELBOURNE TO ASCENSION ISLAND.
A   SURPRISE awaited us upon getting
fairly outside. Our ship's company had
received a mysterious addition of forty-five
men, who now made their appearance from
every conceivable place where a human being
could conceal himself from vigilant eyes.
Fourteen of the number crept out of the
bowsprit, which was of iron and hollow,
where they had come very near ending their
existence by suffocation; twenty more turned
out of some water-tanks which were dry;
another detachment was unearthed from the
lower hold. and at last the whole number of
stowaways were mustered forward, and word
10*      (113)




114     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
was passed to the Captain to learn his pleasure concerning them.
Personally, I felt a good deal of annoyance
over the affair, as it had been my watch a
part of the preceding night, and strict orders
had been given to prevent any sailors from
coming on board except our own, as we were
far from wishing to complicate ourselves in
any way with the English Government.
How such a number of men could have
gained our decks unseen was a mystery to me
then and is still; but there they were, and
the question now was, how to dispose of
them.
Captain Waddell soon made his appearance, not in the best of humor, and without
any circumlocution demanded of our new
recruits to what country they belonged and
for what purpose they were there.
The old sea-dogs chuckled, rolled over their
tobacco, hitched up their trousers, and with
one accord, protested that they were natives




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   115
of the Southern Confederacy, and had come
on board thus surreptitiously for the purpose
of joining us.
There was something absolutely refreshing
in the effrontery with which that motley crew
had first stolen on board, at the moment of
our leaving port, and then claimed the privilege of remaining, on the ground that they
were our countrymen. I verily believe half
the nations of the earth had contributed to
this proposed accession to our numbers, but
sailors are genuine cosmopolitans, and, as a
general thing, change their nationalities as
readily as they do their names; besides we
really needed their assistance, and as they had
come through no connivance of ours, we determined to consider it providential, and they
were all enlisted. A few who were not seamen, we made available as marines. Good
men and true they proved, and very useful
before our cruise was ended.
We now laid our course for New Zealand,




116     THE SHENANDOAH; OR TIJE
where we hoped to fall in with a Yankee
whaler or two, but after cruising unsuccessfully for several days, we steered to the northward, and ere long sighted I)Drummond's
Island, one of the South Pacific group, somewhat of a favorite resort of whalers, for the
purpose of procuring water and fruit.
Drummond's Island is about twenty miles
in circumference and lies very near the equator. As seen from the sea, its general appearance is beautiful in the extreme, and with
every variety of tropical fruit growing spontaneously on its surface, and a lovely climate,
tempered as it is by the breath of the great
Southern Ocean, it seems too fair a spot to be
the inheritance of the miserable race of savages who inhabit it. Until very recently these
natives have numbered cannibalism among
their accomplishments, conscientiously devouring every one whom they captured or
slew in battle, and they are still among the most
ferocious and degraded of the Polynesians.




LAST CONFEDE.RATE CRUISER.   117
When about eight miles distant from the
Island, upon which we were bearing down
under steam, we discovered a boat making
towards us, and in about two hours it was
alongside.
It contained three natives, all perfectly
naked and frightfully tattooed, who brought
with them an abundance of fish and fruit,
which they exchanged with us for tobacco,
the only article of merchandise for which
they seemed disposed to barter.
We had on board an old sailor, who had
visited the Island years before in an American whaler, and had acquired sufficient
knowledge of their language to converse with
them after a fashion. Through him we inquired of them if any whalers had been there
lately, and learned that there had not within
the last three months.
As there seemed no immediate prospect of
capturing a prize in that vicinity, we got
under way again, greatly to the astonishment




118     THE SHENANDOAIH;  OR THE
of our cannibal friends, who were evidently
at a loss to understand by what process we
moved through the water with no sail set, or
through the agency of any other motive
power that they could discover. Cautiously
they paddled in our wake, curiously scanning
the troubled waters, beneath which the propeller was revolving, apparently with the
view of studying out the mystery of the
strange craft that had visited their seas, until
the engineer, at a hint from the officer of the
deck, performed a stirring solo upon his
steam whistle, when, with every appearance
of consternation, they took to their paddles,
and only paused when they had placed a safe
distance between themselves and the screaming monster.
Before sundown the first of the Cannibal
Islands had faded in the distance, and having
let our steam go down, we glided along with
all sail set before the southeast trade winds,
at about seven knots an hour.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    119
The next afternoon, just before the sun
disappeared below the horizon, we could discern a black speck far off to the northward.
Ere long the man at the mast-head reported
it to be a sail standing towards us, and before
dark we brought her to by a blank cartridge
from our twelve pounder. An officer was
dispatched on board to ascertain her nationality, and returning, reported her to be the
schooner P. Fiert of Honolulu, on a trading
expedition among the islands for cocoanut
oil, which is almost their sole article of merchandise.
This much of the boarding officer's report
was of no especial interest, but he added an
addendum that was more to the purpose. The
Honolulu craft brought the gratifying intelligence that five Yankee whalers were lying at
anchor off Ascension Island, so thither we
steered, but made a slight detour on the way
to visit Strong's Island, where whalers not
unfrequently put in.




120     TzHE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
This island is situated about five hundred
miles to the northward of Drummond's, and
is in reality a most charming spot, so far as its
physical features go. Like the one we had
lately left, it produces spontaneously, all the
luscious fruits of the tropical zone, and like
that, also, is the abiding place of a similar
degraded race, but one remove, if any, from
cannibalism, the lowest depth to which humanity can fall.
About six o'clock on the afternoon of the
31st of March, we had the island on our starboard beam, and field and spy-glasses were in
requisition to discover whether any sail flying
the United States flag were in sight.
Steaming slowly on, we passed round the
southern extremity of this ocean emerald,
quite near enough to observe all its distinctive
features. Plainly visible from our deck were
the curious, bower-like houses where the natives shelter themselves from  the torrid heat
of an almost vertical sun; and stretching away




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   121
behind them were little enclosures wherein
were carried on their rude agricultural operations.
Viewed from the distance that we were, it
seemed a very Arcadia, where man might forget the cares and turmoils of the busy world,
with which the Anglo Saxon race are so characteristically familiar, and taste for himself
the delights of the old pastoral days of which
the poets tell us. But here, as elsewhere,
" distance lent enchantment to the view," and
a closer inspection would have revealed, not
pastoral simplicity, but all the revolting practices of savage tribes, sunk in unregenerate
barbarism.
It was dark ere we had concluded our semicircumnavigation of the island, and as the
tropical night closed around us, we could see
the natives on the shore with torches in their
hands, which they waved to and fro, as if to
warn us of some unforeseen danger toward
which we were hurrying.
11




1 22    THE SHENAVD OAH; OR THE
There being no sail in sight we resumed
our course toward Ascension Island under
steam, and on the morning of April 1st,
sighted land looming up several hundred feet
above the level of the sea. A dense fog soon
rested over the water, and fearing shoals or
reefs, we stopped our engine and lay to for
clearer weather.
About eight o'clock the sun shone out
bright and clear, the fog slowly lifted, then
gradually dispersed, and exposed to our view
Ascension Island on our port bow. We immediately got up steam and stood in, and
before ten o'clock a boat was observed coming out from a point of land, making directly
toward us, and it was soon alongside.  It
proved to be a boat belonging to one of four
ships, all of them with the Star Spangled
Banner flying from their peaks, which we
could now discern lying at anchor in a beautiful little bay, feeling as secure, no doubt, as
they would have done in Boston Harbor.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   123
The boat contained, among its other occupants, an Englishman, who had been wrecked
on the island ten years before.  I could
scarcely conceive a more degraded looking
object. He had adopted, perforce, no doubt,
the habits of the Islanders; his body was
tattooed with all manner of fantastic designs,
and he spoke his mother tongue with hesitation and difficulty. He had married a native
-woman, who had borne him two children, one
of whom was still living; and so far as I
could learn, he was treated with kindness
and considerable consideration by the savages
among whom his lot had been cast, but the
torrid climate, with unnatural and perhaps
oftentimes disgusting food, had made sad
inroads upon a naturally robust constitution,
and it was plain to see that he was descending by slow but sure stages to the grave.
It appeared, from the statement of our
visitors, that our ship had been mistaken by
the Yankees for some vessel engaged in a




124     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
coast survey, and they had good-naturedly
sent out a boat with this old Englishman to
pilot us safely in. Thus far we had displayed
no bunting, and, as would have been naturally expected, one of the first questions our
pilot asked on coming on board, was in regard to our nationality.
Not knowing in what direction his sympathies might lie, after hobnobbing as he had
undoubtedly been for some days past with
the crews of the United States vessels in the
harbor, and fearing, in the event of his entertaining hostile sentiments, that he would run
us ashore, as he might easily have done, upon
a coast with which none of us were familiar;
we informed him that the Shenandoah was an
American man-of-war, and requested him to
take us in and anchor us near the other vessels, which he readily consented to do, in
consideration of the sum of thirty dollars.
He favored us with some tough old yarns
touching his island experience, and if his




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    125
story was to be believed, he had been often
in imminent peril of life and limb from the
savages, who, from first considering him in
the light of material for a substantial entertainment, had at last come to regard him as a
friend, and respect him as a being of superior
endowments; but I doubt if anything could
have induced him to return to civilized life,
and indeed he was then thoroughly unfitted
for it.
In the course of an hour we had ranged
up within a mile of the ships, all of which
we had discovered were whalers, and dropped
anchor. Four boats were then lowered and
manned with sailors carrying side arms and
revolvers, with two officers in each boat, and
when all was in readiness a blank cartridge
was fired and the Confederate flag run up.
Our pilot was evidently mystified not a
little at these proceedings. He stood for a
few moments watching the receding boats,
then turned his eyes aloft, curiously.scanning
11*




126     THE SHENAXNDOAH; OR THE
the, to him, strange bunting that streamed
out to the breeze, and finally, turning to the
officer of the deck, he asked what flag that
was, why we had fired that gun, and why
those boats, filled with armed men, were putting off toward the whalers.
" All answered in a word, my hearty," responded the individual addressed. "Those
four ships are prizes to the Confederate Government."
"And what the h- 1 is the Confederate
Government? " queried the old salt, in unaffected astonishment.
"The best and biggest half of what was
the United States of America. The Yankees
didn't sail the Government ship to suit us, so
we cut adrift and started on our own hook."
"The d-l!  What are you going to do
with your prizes? "
" Set them on fire by and by, after we have
taken what we want out of them."
"Well, you and the Yankees must settle




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    127
that business to suit yourselves. If I had
known what you were up to, maybe I should
not have piloted you in, for I don't like to
see a bonfire made of a good ship."
In the course of an hour our boats were
seen returning, bringing with them the first
and second mates of the captured whalers.
The captains were not on board, having gone
on shore that morning for a merry-making,
little dreaming what was in store for their
fleet.
We at once commenced bringing such articles as we required from the prizes, and
about five o'clock in the afternoon we saw a
boat putting off from the shore, which we
were notified contained the festive captains.
Their astonishment may perhaps be imagined when they discovered a cruiser in that
remote sea, bearing the Confederate flag.
For a moment they rested on their oars as
though undetermined what to do, and then
put about and pulled toward the shore; but




128     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
escape was not so easy. A boat was instantly dispatched in pursuit, and at the expiration of a very brief period, we had the
four gentlemen on board, where their amazement was in no wise diminished in finding
their officers and crews in single irons.
They bore their misfortunes, however, with
as good a grace as could be expected.
A prize crew and an officer was then sent
on board of each ship to take charge of it, as
it was not intended to destroy them for a day
or two, or at least until we had secured such
stores from them as we required.
The names of the vessels captured off Ascension Island were as follows: The Edward
Cary of San Francisco, the Hector of New
Bedford, the Pearl of New London, and the
Harvest that tried to hail from the port of
Honolulu, but having no bill of transfer shre
was condemned with the rest.
After securing what we desired from the
prizes, and giving the officers and men an




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    129
opportunity of procuring such personal effects as they desired to save, the natives were
allowed to go on board and ransack the
doomed vessels to their hearts' content. Such
a rare occasion for wholesale plundering had
never occurred before, and was not likely to
again, and they made the most of it. All day
long they swarmed over the vessels, like driver ants upon a dead carcase, and their canoes were constantly passing to and fro,
laden with ships' bread, tobacco, bits of iron,
harpoons and whaling lines, and all sorts of
odds and ends, until they were fairly surfeited with plundering.
On the 3d of April the work of destruction
commenced. The Pearl was the first one
fired, but ere the flames had gained much
headway the Hector and the Edward Cary
were also blazing, and the three sent forth a
lurid glare which lighted up, like the eruption of a volcano, the quiet bay whose waters
were disturbed by scarce a ripple, and the




130     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
tropical shore far inland, with its strange
vegetation and grotesque humanity; while on
the strand were scattered amazed groups of
natives wildly gesticulating, and evidently
unable to comprehend why all this wealth
should be thus ruthlessly destroyed.
The Harvest still remained intact, as she
had not contributed her quota to our stores,
but on the 10th she was hauled alongside,
and we commenced transferring from her
such articles as were suited to our need.
The next day I was specially detailed to go
on shore for the purpose of formally inviting
His Cannibal Majesty to visit us. As it was
a state occasion, I proceeded in the Captain's
gig with six good men well armed, and the
old pilot to act as interpreter.
The voyage was quickly accomplished, but
as we neared the beach a crowd of natives
rushed down to meet us, armed with stones,
which they hurl almost with the precision of
a rifle-ball, and swords manufactured from




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   131
sharks' teeth, the edges of which are dipped
in a subtle poison that leaves certain death in
any wounds they inflict.  The appearance
of this heathenish multitude was anything
but conciliatory, and I gathered from their
manner and gesticulations that they were
apprehensive we had come to reclaim all or a
portion of the plunder they had taken from
the whalers, and were disposed to stand upon
the well-known maxim that "possession is
nine points of the law," and defend their
booty to the last.
A few words from the interpreter explained
the real object of our visit, and when they
learned it was to do honor to their king that
we had come, their unfriendly demonstrations
subsided, though there were still two or three
ferocious looking villains who eyed us askance, and I have no doubt considered what
sort of roasts or barbecues we would probably make.
HIis Majesty was not in his customary




132     THE SEENANDOAH; OR THE
abiding-place, a little bamboo hut near the
beach, barely large enough to contain four
persons, but at a sort of Government House
farther inland, where some sort of festivity
was in progress. Two or three of his chiefs
volunteered to escort me thither, and leaving
my men in the boat and accompanied by the
interpreter, I set forth for the first time in my
life to pay a visit to royalty. It was more of
a walk than I had anticipated, and the way
led over some steep, rugged ascents, hard
enough to climb under that broiling sun, but
there was much to amuse me in observing the
manners and habits of this strange people,
and in gaining a better insight than I had
before been able to do, into their domestio
economy.
Once, in passing a native hut, I observed a
dog with his brains beaten out, but still retaining his skin and entrails, lying by the side
of a rude oven, all ready prepared for his
reception, and when I returned, a few hours




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   133
later, a woman sat before the still smouldering embers gnawing the hind leg of the animal, to which the hair still adhered.
In process of time I arrived at the place
where the king was holding his temporary
court. It was a rude, extensive building, built
of bamboo, with a high peaked roof and
eaves which extended nearly to the ground,
and in it were assembled some three hundred
of the most hideous looking human beings it
was ever my fortune to behold. The most
of them were armed like those we had met
on the beach with stones, and bone swords,
though a few of them had spears, and I am
free to confess to feeling anything but comfortable, as I stood in the presence of that
fiendish looking multitude, with no attendant
save the demoralized Englishman who had
perhaps degenerated into a worse savage than
any of them. But it was too late to turn
back, even had I been disposed to do so, and
assuming as nonchalant an air as possible,
12




134     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE.
and feeling to see that my revolver was convenient to my hand I entered the building.
His Majesty was seated on a platform raised
a few inches above the floor, and on my
entrance, arose to meet me. He was a miserable little savage scarcely more than five feet
high, naked with the exception of a tappa made
of grass, worn about his waist and smeared
from head to foot with cocoanut oil. Like
most of his followers, he wore thrust through
a hole made in the lobe of his ear for the
purpose,-a huge misshapen tobacco pipe, an
arrangement which, however convenient, did
not add in the least to his personal appearance.
A number of his subjects were employed
in making gorwa, a kind of intoxicating beverage manufactured from roots crushed between
stones, and afterwards left to ferment; an industrial pursuit upon which he seemed to
look with peculiar favor.
The old pilot presented me in due form,




LAST CONFLEDERATE CRUISER.   135
and I at once made known my errand. The
KIing listened, looked round distrustfully a
few moments, and showed himself a true
diplomatist, by asking by way of answer to
see my sword and revolver. Having examined
these to his heart's content and taken another
deliberate survey of his followers, probably
querying with himself meanwhile, whether
they would be able to protect him against
one desperate Confederate, should he feel disposed to make a prize of him, he advanced
another step in our negotiations, and invited
me to take a drink, and as this was a branch
of diplomacy in which I had had some practice, I complied and touched my lips to the
cocoanut cup containing the vilest smelling,
most nauseous compound upon which a man
ever attempted to get salubrious.
These formal points of court etiquette disposed of, we returned to the real business in
hand, and after a little persuasion, my royal
host'condescended to favor me with his com



136     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
pany, but to effectually guard himself against
any machinations that might be meditated
against his peace and dignity, he gave his
ugly person a fresh coating of cocoanut oil,
and announced himself in readiness for the
proposed excursion.
Back to the beach we wended our way, the
King and a few of his chiefs, and my insignificant self taking the lead, and the whole
vagabond colony following at our heels.
On reaching the shore, the King was accommodated with the seat of honor in the
boat, while I placed myself out of olfactory
range of the peculiar perfumes belonging to
him and his retinue, and ordered the men to
give way.
As we glided seaward at least a hundred
boats put off and followed in our wake, each
containing from three to five natives, and all
keeping at a respectful distance behind, out
of deference to the great man who preceded
them.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   137
On reaching the ship, Captain Waddel and
his first lieutenant received his coppercolored Majesty with appropriate Jionors,
and, after a brief inspection, conducted him
to the cabin, where such a collation as our
barbarous tastes could furnish, was set forth
for his entertainment; but the old reprobate
turned up his nose at the wine, and I strongly
suspect a cold roast Confederate would have
been more to his liking than the unpretending viands of our steward.
But everything passed off harmoniously,
and after a couple of hours' visit, during
which none of his followers had attempted to
come on board, though they remained close
around the ship in their canoes, he took his
departure, well laden with presents of old
muskets, powder, small shot, and tobacco,
upon excellent terms with himself and us.
During the two or three days that followed,
our men were allowed to go on shore, in limited detachments at a time, and each was
12*




138    THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
furnished with a small quantity of tobacco,
the standing circulating medium at Ascension, and I dare say they enjoyed themselves;
at all events a pretty fair percentage of them
managed to return at least three sheets in the
wind on gorwa, unless they found a better
beverage, which was not unlikely, that had
been smuggled ashore from one of the
whalers.
There is one place of- peculiar interest on
this Island. It is the remains of an old fortification, in regard to which there is not
even a tradition among the natives. "The
oldest inhabitant" does not profess to have
even an idea of when or by whom it was
built; but it is certainly a relic of considerable antiquity, and whoever erected it had
no contemptible knowledge of the application
of mechanical powers.
Another curious circumstance is, that it is
mostly composed of huge blocks of stone,
some of them four or five feet square, which




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   139
must have been brought from some other locality, as nothing like them is found in any
other part of the island. The generally received opinion among seamen is, that it was
built by some of the ancient buccaneers as a
repository for their ill-gotten gains, and a
place of retreat in time of danger.
On the morning of the 13th of April we
paroled all the prisoners we had on board,
and having removed what we desired from
the Harvest, we set her on fire. The prisoners seemed to prefer being left on shore to
accompanying us on our long and uncertain
voyage, so after providing them with an abundance of everything in the way of ship stores,
arms, and ammunition, besides their personal
effects, we bade them good-by.
I should mention that this island is provided with a missionary, unexceptionable in
faith and practice I should infer, as he hailed
from the goodly Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so it was fair to presume that the




140         THE SHENANDOAH.
morals of our discomfited foes would be well
cared for during their stay in his diocese.
The reverend gentleman did not pay his
respects to us, but he doubtless considered us
unregenerate heathen, not worth saving, if
indeed divine mercy was for such as we.
The same afternoon we got up our anchor
and once more proceeded to sea, taking with
us a number of fresh recruits who had joined
us from the last prizes.




CHAPTER VII.
FROM ASCENSION ISLAND TO THE OCHOTSK SEA.
THE old pilot accompanied us outside, taking us out safely as he had taken us in,
and when a good offing was obtained, he
wished us a pleasant cruise, went over the side
into his little boat, and we saw him no more.
We then turned our prow northward and
set forth to cruise between San Francisco and
Hong Kong, trusting to intercept a few of
the rich merchantmen trading to those important ports.
The first of May found us fairly in the
track of these traders, and the lookouts
mounted to their respective perches with
renewed alacrity, and swept the sea with
watchful eyes, but all to no purpose.  It
(141)




142     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
seemed as though the merchantmen of whom
we were in pursuit, must have had a premonition of our coming; at all events, they
kept out of sight, and after several days'
fruitless cruising, passing and repassing
leagues of that great highway for ships, we
concluded to stand to the northward once
more. We had not had a glimpse of a sail
since leaving Ascension.
As might have been expected, this state of
inactivity resulted in a dull and dissatisfied
condition of things on board the Shenandoah,
but on a cruiser, one constantly alternates
between a life of stirring excitement and
absolute stupidity.
When in pursuit of a prize, all is life and
animation. The rigging is filled with eager,
excited faces, spy-glasses pass from hand to
hand, orders are hurriedly given and instantly
obeyed, and until the capture is effected, and
the ship disposed of, there is little rest for
any one. Then follows, perhaps, weeks of




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   143
idleness, with nothing to break the tedious
monotony. The watches turn out and in,
yawning, the lookouts mount aloft, and sleepily throw a glance over the broad expanse
of water-at seven bells, the master comes
up with his sextant, to "take the sun," and
work out the position of the ship, with his
logarithms, - in the forecastle, tough yarns
are spun by solemn visaged old sea-dogs, and
at night perhaps a violin or banjo furnishes
entertainment for a little knot; but with every
expedient that can be resorted to, and the
working of the ship, a light labor with so
many hands to assist in it, the time drags
wearily, and if one has not the resource of
some mental occupation, it falls, in the course
of time just short of unendurable.
On the morning of the 16th, the sun arose
from a sky as clear and beautiful as is ever
seen in these latitudes, where the Storm
Spirits comparatively seldom assemble in




144     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
their might, to demonstrate to man the power
of Infinity, and his own weakness.
The sea was slightly ruffled by a light
breeze from the northward and westward, and
we were gliding along on a bowline at the
rate of five or six knots an hour, but ere
night closed in, some changes began to be
apparent in the face of the heavens, and the
barometer gave unmistakable warning that a
tempest of no ordinary fury was rapidly approaching.
Before many hours it came howling down
upon us, like a vengeful demon. Our good
ship staggered before the first fierce gust of
the hurricane, and careened over until the
ends of her lower yards were drenched by
the spray of the rising sea, but she righted
almost immediately, shook the water from her
strong wings, nodded her head as if in defiance of the storm, and was off like an arrow
from a well-drawn bow.
The next morning the gale was at its




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   145
height, and we were scudding before it at the
rate of eleven or twelve knots an hour, under
close reefed foretop-sail and reefed foresail.
Preventer braces were got aloft, hatches battened down, and so far as possible everything
was done to insure our safety.
Our old boatswain, a veteran of the British
navy, who for twenty years had done battle
with the elements in every part of the world,
exerted himself to his utmost, and on an
occasion like this, there was no better man;
he was a host of himself.
Still the storm continued with unabated
violence, and ere long, our maintop-sail, with
a report like a shotted gun, broke from the
leech-ropes, and flew away before the breath
of the tornado, like a boy's kite.
The officer of the deck immediately ordered
the maintop-men aloft to secure such remnants of the sail as were still attached to the
yards, beating the air like gigantic whips, as
if to drive away any who might attempt to
13




146     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
repair the disaster; but a new sail had to be
bent, and that right speedily, desperate as
the duty seemed. For a little time the scene
was absolutely terrific. Slowly and painfully
the sailors toiled up the shrouds, sometimes
blown against them and held there with a
force that rendered further progress for the
time impossible. Coolly but cautiously they
made their way out upon the yard that anon
pointed at an abrupt angle to the heavens,
and the next instant levelled its great finger
at the depths below, and proceeded with consummate skill and courage to remove what
remained of the tattered sail.
In an inconceivably brief period the new
sail was in its place, secured and sheeted
home, and was then close-reefed by means of
the revolving yard.
Scarcely was this accomplished when a
heavy sea came on board, filling the deck to
the waist, and for the second time since setting sail from Madeira, the ports had to be




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   147
knocked out, in order to free ourselves from
the tremendous weight of waters.
Every one on board was literally drenched,
and we' had just rid the decks of that sea
when another came rolling over us, carrying
away with it one man, who, strange to relate,
was the next moment dashed on board again
by another sea, terribly frightened but otherwise uninjured.
The ship now began to roll so heavily that
the royal yards were sent down on deck and
secured in the fore, main, and mizzen rigging. On, on we rushed, now rising to the
summit of a mountain wave, then darting
with almost the velocity of light down the
dark, shining declivity, while behind us the
sea reared its crested head, threatening to
engulf us at once and forever.
The gale continued for twelve hours, carrying us more than a hundred miles out of
our course. Thousands of right whale birds,
as they are known among whalers, from be



148    THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
ing always found in the vicinity of the marine
monster bearing that cognomen, were hoverering over the ship, as though speculating
upon the position of affairs, and wondering
whether we would be able to weather the
tempest.
I know not why it is, but in proportion as
danger menaces on shipboard, sailors habitually grow profane, and, during the continuance of that gale, which, all things considered, I think was about the most severe of
any I ever encountered, an amount of swearing was done that I never heard equalled in
the same length of time.
Toward night the wind abated and was
succeeded by a rain which literally poured
down in streams, wetting to the skin in a moment, every one who was exposed to it; but
it did us the good service of beating down
the tremendous sea that was running, and the
next day we were again shaping our course
for the Amphitrite Straits, which form the




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   149
entrance to the Ochotsk Sea, and were so
named in honor of the English man-of-war by
whom they were discovered.
Many birds were still following us, picking
up anything that was thrown overboard from
the vessel; but some of the feathered tribe
with which we had been familiar for some
weeks had left us, and strange ones had
taken their places. The albatross we had not
seen since crossing the equator, and I believe
he seldom extends his travels north of the
line.
We were now bound for those icy regions
bordering on the Arctic. circle, trusting to
make a raid upon the United States whaling
fleet that would enrich ourselves and inflict a
heavy blow upon the enemy.
I do not suppose there were half a dozen
men on board, who,' of their own accord
would have selected that cruising ground,
notwithstanding the inducements it offered;
but our orders were to proceed thither, and
13*




150     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
nothing short of the probable destruction of
the ship would have been regarded as an
adequate excuse for not carrying them into
effect.
On the 20th of May, we saw snow for the
first time, in more than a year, and cold and
cheerless enough it seemed, after our long
sojourn in the tropics. Chests and clothesbags were ransacked for woollen underclothing, and heavy pea-jackets and overcoats
were in requisition throughout the entire
ship's company, the majority of whom wished
we were heading for warmer seas.
The next day we got up steam for the purpose of passing the Amphitrite Straits, and
before nightfall, the lofty, snow-clad mountains of Kamtschatka, as bleak and barren as
the imagination could picture, were towering
upon the starboard bow.
The winds sweeping down from these
frozen regions, struck to the very marrow, and
a cold, disagreeable fog seemed to hang per



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   151
petually over the water, while the blink of
field ice in more than one direction warned
us of our proximity to the Arctic circle.
About noon the lookout reported a sail in
sight, but it was sometime ere any one else
could distinguish it, but before three o'clock,
she was distinctly made out standing toward
us, and we made more sail to come up with
her.
A long stretch of field ice, however, intervened between us and the stranger, which we
were obliged to partially circumnavigate, ere
we could reach her. We stood'along close
by the western margin of the field ice, until
we rounded its northern point, when we
showed the Russian ensign, as the most appropriate one for a vessel of our appearance
to fly in those high latitudes, to which she
responded by running up the Stars and
Stripes.
The Russian flag was immediately lowered,
and in the place of it we showed the Confed



152     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
erate Stars and Bars, and a blank cartridge
from our twelve pounder brought her to.
An officer was then dispatched on board,
who informed the Captain that his vessel was
a prize.to the Confederate State Steamer
Shenandoah, to.-which he must at once proceed with his papers.
The skipper looked at him for a moment,
scratched his head, laid in a fresh chew of
tobacco, and then  remarked  as coolly as
if giving the order to heave up his anchor,
"Well, I s'pose I'm taken! but who on earth
would have thought of seeing one of your
Southern privateers up here in the Ochotsk
Sea. I have heard of some of the pranks
you fellows have been playing, but I supposed I was out of your reach."
"Why the fact of the business is, Captain,"
replied the officer, facetiously, "we have
entered into a treaty offensive and defensive
with the whales, and are up here by special
agreement to disperse their mortal enemies."




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   153
"All right! my friend. I never grumble
at anything I can't help, but the whales
needn't owe me much of a grudge, for the
Lord knows I haven't disturbed them  this
voyage, though I've done my part at blubberhunting in years gone by. But it's cold talking here, come below and take something to
warm your stomach, while I get my papers."
In a little time the nonchalant old Captain
announced himself in readiness, and in company with our officer, came on board the
Shenandoah. Shortly after, the crew, numbering about thirty all told, were brought off
in their own whale boats. They were of
similar timber to their commander, and one
of them remarked as he came over the side,
that "he had not expected to take steam
home, and to tell the truth he had just as lief
trust to sail," but they accepted their change
of fortune with general good humor, and even
single irons and confinement in the top-gallant




154     THE SHENANDOAH; O THE
forecastle did not seem to materially depress
their spirits.
Upon the whole, they were about as plucky
and sailor-like a set of fellows as fell into our
hands during the entire cruise.
We remained near the prize all night,
taking out guch stores as suited our fancy.
There was a quantity of liquor on board
which the Captain had brought along, with
the view of trading for furs on the coast of
Siberia. This part of the whaler's cargo was
soon nosed out by our forecastle gentry, and
before the officers knew what was going on,
a cask had been broached and the greater
part of one watch were about as gloriously
drunk as men well can be.
As soon as this was discovered, the inebriates were shut into the forecastle, and the
more obstreperous placed in irons; but while
this discipline was progressing, the rest got
wind of the captured treasure, and by the
time one detachment were secured, another




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    155
were in condition to receive the same polite
attention we had shown their fellows. In
brief, I think it was the most general and
stupendous' spree" I ever witnessed. There
was not a dozen sober men on board the ship
except the prisoners, and had these not been
ironed it might have proved a dearly bought
frolic.
Some of the petty officers were as thoroughly inebriated as any of the men, and had
to be confined in their quarters by sheer
force. The carpenter, I recollect, twice burst
out of his room, where we had attempted to
imprison him, and finally we had to furnish
" old Chips " with a pair of bracelets, and tie
him into his bunk to cool off.
We never captured a prize that created so
much excitement as this, and we never captured one of so little value. She had taken
but a small quantity of oil, was a regular old
tub, at least fifty years old, and, excepting




156     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
the whiskey, had nothing in her of any consequence worth taking.
We removed twenty-five barrels of the extract of corn, to be used in case of sickness,
and then set the old hulk on fire.
She was the Abigail, of New Bedford,
commanded by Captain Nye, a veteran whaleman, who gained the good will of our officers
by his never-failing good humor under adverse circumstances, and the shrewdness and
tact he displayed upon all occasions.
We then steered toward the coast of Siberia, the well-known place of banishment for
Russians criminals.  They remain on this
coast during the entire winter, engaged in
the collection of furs, the greater part of
which go to the support of the Government
at St. Petersburg. No one can imagine, unless he has actually looked upon these inhospitable shores, what sufferings and privations these poor exiles endure. It was then
the first of June. The thermometer stood




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    157
fifteen degrees below the freezing point, and
the ship from top to bottom was covered with
ice; and if this was a specimen of a Siberian
summer, some idea may be conceived of the
severity of their winters, when, for long,
dreary months no solar warmth loosens the
frosty fetters that bind this God-forsaken
region.
On the 4th of June we were fairly jammed
in the ice. On every side of us, as far as the
eye could reach, extended the field ice; and,
as the ponderous floes came together, the
crushed and mangled debris rose up into
huge mounds of crystal blocks, seemingly as
immovable and imperishable as the bluffs on
shore. Indeed, it was impossible, while gazing off over the scene of wildness and desolation by which we were surrounded, to
conceive the possibility of an avenue of escape opening through such barriers.
I recalled to mind Dr. Kane's account of
the war he waged for so many months in the
14




158     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
polar seas; of his little brigantine, beset as
our ship now was, and the icy ramparts
strengthening day by day until they formed a
mausoleum where she still reposed; and had
the season been farther advanced, I should
have felt grave apprehensions for our safety.
Not that I should have feared being frozen in
for any great length of time in that latitude,
but our ship had not been built to resist the
rude shocks of Arctic ice, and as yet her powers of resistance had not been tested, consequently there was ground for fear that
the tremendous pressure around her might
result in serious consequences.
But a woman's temper is not more capricious than the movements of the ice in these
Northern Seas. The next day a strong breeze
sprang up from the southward, and before
nightfall there was open water all around us,
and the vast fields by which we had been
confined were broken up and rapidly drifting
toward the ocean.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    159
We then laid our course toward Jonas
Island, about two hundred miles distant and
very near the centre of the Ochotsk Sea.
This island is a favorite rendezvous for right
whalers, — a sort of marine caravanserie,
where they meet to talk over their luck, hold
their "gams," and enjoy themselves generally. If we could reach it, the chances were
ten to one of our falling in with a fleet of
from fifteen to thirty sail, which could be
captured without firing a shot; but the navigation was difficult, and, as I have said, our
ship's capacity to resist the shocks of the
drifting ice had not as yet been satisfactorily
tested, and we almost hesitated to make the
experiment.
That night we were jammed in the ice
again, and as I lay in my berth, I could hear
the huge blocks thundering and chafing
against the side of the ship as though it
would dash her in pieces. It was an anxious
night to all on board.  None of us were




160     THE SHENANDOAH;  OR THE
familiar with Arctic cruising, and consequently were to a great extent incompetent
to judge of the imminence of the danger, but
the hours of darkness wore away at last,
without leaving us to mourn any serious accident. In a few places the copper had been
chafed through, but this was about the greatest injury we had sustained, and soon after
daylight the ice separated, through some
unseen agency, leaving us free. But we had
had enough of the route to Jonas Island,
which may be a most desirable locality for
whalemen and other amphibious animals who
enjoy a temperature below zero, and have an
affinity for ice-fields and fogs; but for my
part, I would not spend six months thereabouts for all the leviathans that ever poured
their oily treasures into the coffers of New
Bedford.
The plain truth was, we were running too
much risk in taking our cruiser through this
sort of navigation for which she was never




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    161
intended, and we reluctantly abandoned the
idea of reaching the grand headquarters of
the Ochotsk Sea whaling fleet.
We learned afterwards that had we persevered and succeeded, we should have made
a splendid haul, but I, for one, do not regret
it, for as the event proved, we did enough
mischief that resulted in no good to any one,
and much harm to many.
I had taken occasion at leisure intervals to
make such inquiries as I could without exciting suspicion as to my motives, of the first
mate of our last prize, a stanch old sailor,
true as steel to his own Government, concerning the intricate navigation of Behring's
Straits and the Arctic Sea beyond, where we
knew there was a large whaling fleet upon
which we would like to pounce, if the risk
of getting there was not too great to counterbalance the good we might accomplish.
The old fellow never dreamed that I had
any other purpose than to satisfy a seaman14*




162     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
like curiosity, and took great pleasure in
pointing out upon the charts the dangerous
places, and in giving me a general idea of the
difficulties to be encountered on a cruise in
that direction.  The information thus obtained I of course reported to our Captain,
which increased his desire to have a look at
that locality; but to have attempted the voyage without a competent pilot would have
been foolhardy in the extreme.
This want, however, was soon unexpectedly supplied. About this time the second
mate of the Abigail began to express a desire
to join us, and of course claimed to be a
strong Southern sympathizer.  He was a
Baltimorean by birth, anything by profession,
and a reprobate by nature.  He had last
shipped at San Francisco, where; I was informed by one of his shipmates, he had been
hired to vote for Lincoln by a drink of whiskey, and he now proposed, after a little backing and filling, not only to cast in his lot with




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   163
us, but to pilot the Shenandoah to the spot
where the whaling fleet, which contained
more than one vessel upon which he had
served, was pursuing its bold, laborious calling.
It is always unpleasant, though sometimes
necessary, to accept the services of the most
disreputable of men, and as this was an
opportunity which was not likely to occur
again for securing a guide to the prize we
sought, his overtures were received, and
Thomas S. Manning was enrolled as ship's
Corporal, and at once entered upon the discharge of his duties.
Having gone over to the Confederacy, he'did nothing by halves, but set resolutely to
work to induce as many as possible of his
shipmates to follow his example, and several
of them did so, not knowing, however, that
he intended to conduct us to the ships that
contained the friends and acquaintances with
whom they had grown up from boyhood.




164     THE S HENANDOAH; OR THE
Had they been aware of it, I do not believe a
man of them would have enlisted under our
flag.
The remainder of the Abigail's crew stood
out resolute against all inducements held out
to them, and earnestly besought permission
to land on the Siberian shore, from whence
they imagined they could get off and join the
Russian whaling fleet, cruising in the vicinity.
To this, however, Captain Waddell would
not assent, and they took the disappointment
philosophically, as they did the rest of their
misfortunes.
The more we learned of the Abigail's crew
the better we liked them, with the exception
of the second mate, who, though he rendered
us good service, we could not well help despising.
The old Captain developed some new
phase of Yankee eccentricity every day that
amused us, if it did not raise him in our es



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   165
timation. Little by little it came out, partly
from his own admissions and partly from the
casual remarks of his officers and crew, that
he was a thorough bred speculator in his
own way. It was his custom, on preparing
for a voyage, to lay in a quantity of cheap
whiskey and second-hand clothing, which he
retailed out, as opportunity offered, to his
ship's company, or to the savages with whom
he came in contact in the course of his cruising, at such an advance on the first cost as
would have frightened a Chatham Street Jew
into serious apprehensions for the future wellbeing of his soul.
He remarked rather gleefully to me, a
day or two after the capture, that he guessed,
after all, the loss of the old ship wouldn't
swamp him. There was another ready for
him at San Francisco as soon as he got out
of our hands, and another cruise would set
him all right.
I strongly suspect the old sea turtle he




166     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
commanded was insured for about her full
value, and, as luck seemed to be rather
against him in the whaling line, that he was
more than half pleased that we had furnished
him with a good market for the vessel of
which he was third owner, and a free passage
back to the port where he calculated on securing a better one; but of course, I wish it
understood that this is merely conjecture.
We were now heading for the main land
again, and soon saw it looming up in the distance,. Large quantities of ice were drifting
in all directions, and to save the copper from
chafing, we were compelled to suspend mats
made of ropes over the bows.
Having cruised in the Ochotsk Sea from
the 21st of May, until the 13th of June, and
only capturing one prize, we determined to
lay our course for Behring's Straits, Manning
acting as pilot, and evincing a thorough competency for the position.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   167
We passed out through the same passage
by which we had entered, and stood to the
eastward with a moderate breeze from the
southward.




CHAPTER VIII.
OUR CRUISE IN BEHRING S STRAITS.
WE were favored with a fair wind, after
losing sight of the Kamtschatkan coast,
though the weather was raw and cold, and
frequent fogs made navigation additionally
hazardous.
We passed to the southward of Behring's
Island, and came very near going ashore on
its neighbor, Copper Island, in a dense fog
which lifted just in time to show us our
danger, and enable us to avoid it.
These islands are somewhat celebrated for
the fur-bearing animals, both land and marine,
that abound on them and in their vicinity.
There are several varieties of seal thereabouts, which are occasionally hunted by
(168)




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   169
whalers when there is a scarcity of the larger
game, for the capture of which they are
especially fitted out, and some foxes and
brown bears are found on the islands, whose
peltries excite the cupidity of the sailors,
when they have nothing better to occupy their
attention.
After a good passage of nine days, we
sighted and stood towards Cape Thaddeus, on
the coast of Asia.
This Cape is situated on the opposite meridian to Greenwich, and is usually sighted by
whalers for the purpose of regulating their
chronometers. It was formerly a great whaling ground and is still much frequented by
vessels in that trade. A week before, thirty
sail were in the vicinity, and had our visit
taken place at that time, the destruction of
property would have been almost incalculable.
On the 22d of June, we sighted two ships,
and steamed after the nearest, which was
trying out oil, as we knew by the quantity of
15




170     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
smoke, though she was at a considerable distance.
On nearing her, an officer and a prize
crew went on board and brought off the Captain and mates, from whom we learned that
our prize was the William Thompson, belonging to New Bedford, and the largest whaling
ship in the fleet.
Leaving the officer and prize crew in
charge, we steamed after the other, and when
near enough, showed the English flag, which
she answered by hoisting the Stars and
Stripes. We ran close alongside of her, sent
an officer and prize crew on board with
orders to bring off her company at once, and
set the prize on fire, which was done. This
was the ship Euphrates, and was also owned
in New Bedford. Her crew came off to us
in her own boats.
About seven o'clock P. M. we spoke the
English whaler Robert Town, of Sydney,




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    171
Australia, and she was.the only English
vessel we saw bound for the Arctic.
We then turned round and steamed back
toward the William Thompson, passing on
the way the Euphrates, now one sheet of
flame fore and aft.  We remained in the
vicinity of the first-named vessel until half
past three the following morning, when that
also was set on fire, and we steamed away to
the northward in search of more Yankees.
The weather was excessively uncomfortable; heavy fogs were frequent, and flurries
of snow not uncommon, and the quantity of
floating ice we encountered somewhat impeded our progress, if it did not place us in
actual peril.
About twelve o'clock at noon on the 24th,
although noon and midnight were now about
the same thing with us, the sun only remaining an hour or two beneath the horizon, we
began to near the Behring's Straits fleet, for
which we had been looking, and by four




172     THE SHENAXDOAH; OR THE
o'clock eight sail were in sight from the
deck.
The sun was shining with more than its
accustomed radiance as we advanced toward
them, and as its rays were reflected from the
glittering fields of ice, the effect was indescribably beautiful.
Away on our starboard bow we could dis-.tinguish a boat and its crew gliding swiftly
through the water, towed by a large right
whale to which they had just fastened, and
the vessel to which it belonged was standing
slowly after, to keep it in view. Other ships
we could see far off in the field-ice, trying
out the blubber of the ponderous animals
which they pursue and capture with such
consummate courage and skill; and upon the
whole it was a scene of stirring activity well
worth looking at.
Seals in vast numbers were swimming in
the water, or composedly floating on the
drifting ice, and notwithstanding their cold




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    173
bed, seemed to enjoy vastly the rays of the
sun that for so small a portion of the year
makes its heat felt in these high latitudes.
On the starboard beam stretching away as
far as the eye could reach, was a seemingly
unbroken sea of ice, while on the port beam
rose up the cold, dreary shores of Northern
Asia, as sterile and inhospitable a region as
my eyes ever looked upon.
The two vessels nearest us had foreign ensigns flying at their peaks, but the next in
order sported Uncle Sam's gridiron, and all
the others belonged to that same enterprising
and wide-awake old gentleman.
The first that fell into our. hands was the
ship Milo, of New Bedford, a staunch, but
slow-sailing craft, evidently built expressly
for this hazardous cruising, and was well
prepared to resist the drifting ice so constantly encountered in these seas. She had
on board several barrels of oil, but had only
just commenced whaling in earnest.
1-d




174     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
The Captain was a fine looking old veteran, standing over six feet two, and straight
as an arrow. He came over the side with all
the dignity of an admiral, and handed his
papers to the first lieutenant who politely escorted him to the Captain's cabin.
After a brief conversation, Captain Waddell proposed to ransom the Milo for forty
thousand dollars, on condition of her Captain's agreeing to take what prisoners we
then had on hand, and might capture in that
vicinity, to San Francisco.
He accepted the proposal readily, highly
gratified, I have no doubt, at being able
to save his vessel upon any terms, and
the requisite bound was drawn whereby he
bound his owners to pay the neat sum of
forty thousand dollars at the close of the
war.
I should be extremely unwilling to acquire
the character of a dun, but I shall be pardoned, I trust, for reminding the parties in



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   175
terested that this and a number of similar
vouchers taken by us during our cruise, have
not yet been paid, and if they ever intend to
take up these obligations, no better time than
the present will ever offer. To be sure the
war terminated disastrously to our cause,
but we are, therefore, so much the more in
need of any trifling sums that may be owing
us. The above amounts, therefore, may be
sent to me, care of my publisher, who is
hereby authorized to receipt for the same.
When this negotiation was concluded satisfactorily to all parties, the old skipper returned on board his vessel, and dispatched
his whale boats to bring off the prisoners
from  the Shenandoah.  Several of them
warmly shook hands with us at parting, and
expressed the hope that we might meet again
under different and more pleasing circumstances. It was a sentiment in which we
could heartily concur, and I must say that
American whalers are officered by some of




176     THE S HENANDOAH; OR THE
the noblest, most high-minded and generous
men belonging to the great brotherhood of
seamen. A kindness they seldom forget, —
to a friend their hand is ever open, and an
enemy they can look upon as one who might
have been a friend, but for some political accident which it is out of their line of business
to examine into very closely.
While all this was transpiring, two vessels
lying'quite near us seemed to have awakened
to the fact that the locality was a dangerous
one, and to be endeavoring to arrange some
plan of escape for one at least. Both were
heading for the field ice, probably under the
impression that while we were in pursuit of
one, the other might find some opening
through which we might not like to follow
her, or elude us in some sudden fog, that
Providence might send to her relief. All this
we comprehended at a glance, and bidding
the Captain of the Milo to wait and receive a




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   177
farther addition to his passenger list, we got
up steam and stood after the runaways.
As we approached within easy range of
them, one put about and steered for the shore
while the other stood boldly on into the ice.
Ordering the lookout aloft to keep a sharp
eye on the former, we gave our especial attention to the latter, and ranging along near the
edge of the ice, we fired a shot that passed
just forward of her figure head.
Still she stood on, in the desperate hope of
escaping, so another shot was fired which
passed through her main topsail, and being
by this time convinced not only that she was
within easy range but that we were capable
of riddling her in a very brief period, she
gave it up, went about, and steered toward
our boat, which had been sent out with a
prize crew as soon as we observed this last
movement.
The boat was soon alongside and the officer
ascended to the deck. The prize proved to




178    THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
be the Sophia Thornton of New Bedford, and
having dispatched the Captain and his mates
in one of their own boats off to us, they
remained in charge, while we started in pursuit of the other, under steam and fore and
aft sail, at the rate of eleven knots an hour.
Before the close of the first dog watch, we
brought her to with a shot from our thirtytwo pounder Whitworth rifle, which whistled
past her stern. She had crowded on all the
sail she could carry, but it availed her little
in her laudable efforts to avoid capture.
She proved to be another New Bedforder,
the Jeriah Swift, commanded by Captain
Williams, a native of that city. He was said
by Manning, to have about fifteen thousand
dollars in specie on board, the proceeds of a
quantity of oil he had lately sold, but as Captain Williams readily made oath that there
was no such amount in his vessel, and we had
already discovered that our newly enlisted
ship's Corporal was a most accomplished liar,




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   179
among his other engaging characteristics, we
did not enter into a very close examination.
Within thirty minutes after the Jeriah
Swift was captured, she was in flames, and
having seen her crew en route for the Milo
in their own boats, we were off in chase of
another fellow, that, however, finally escaped
into the ice.
Several of the vessels which we had first
seen engaged in trying out blubber, we now
discovered were surrounded by such extensive
fields of ice, that we dared not venture after
them, so for once these hardy voyagers, had
occasion to thank as their preservers, these
icy barriers that so often prove their destruction.
Captain Waddell now determined to give
the prisoners permission to take whatever
they desired from the Sophia Thornton, in the
way of provisions and other necessaries to
make them comfortable on their passage to
San Francisco, so we stood back to her vicin



180     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
ity, where this decision was made known and
was received with general satisfaction. There
was an accompanying order, however, that
did not meet with so much approbation. It
was to fire the ship, when they had finished
taking whatever they wanted away from her.
This they reluctantly promised to do, but fearing, in case a favorable breeze should spring
up, the temptation to run away with her would
prove too strong for their virtue, we cut away
the spars, and giving them to understand that
they would be within range of our eightinch shells which would certainly be dropping down among them, if our instructions
were not implicitly obeyed, we again got
under way.
As we glided seaward, still standing toward
the frozen region of the Arctic circle, we
could see the disabled vessel, with her masts
dragging alongside, and the paroled prisoners
in their whale boats, transferring from her to
the Milo whatever suited their fancy. I have




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   181
no doubt the craft was thoroughly ransacked,
but ere the sun made its brief disappearance
below the horizon, a bright tongue of flame
shot heavenward, telling us that the prisoners
had performed  their distasteful task.  A
more unpleasant duty, I trust, will never be
assigned to any of them. It is hard enough
to see the oaken cradle in which one has
rocked for so many weeks and months destroyed by the incendiary torch, but when
necessity compels a sailor to light with his
own hand the fire that is to consume the ship
he has learned to love, he has good grounds
for complaint against the fates, for the ungenerous usage to which they have subjected
him.
The next morning we fell in with, and
captured the brig Susan Abigail, a trader
from San Francisco. She had a miscellaneous cargo, consisting of guns, pistols, needles,
calico, twine, and Yankee notions in general,
such articles in short as would be acceptable
16




182     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
to the Esquimaux, with whom it was the
Captain's intention to barter for furs.
It was a money-making trade I should
judge from what I learned of it. For an old
gun and some amunition, fifteen or twenty
sables were freely given in exchange, and a
good knife would purchase almost anything.
The Captain of the Susan Abigail when he
came on board wore a magnificent fur coat,
a relic of his last voyage to these seas. He
begged very hard that his ship might not be
burned, as that was to be his last expedition
to this part of the world, and he expected to
clear about thirty thousand dollars, but his
eloquence was all thrown away.  Captain
Waddell seldom took much notice of what
prisoners said, so long as his own conscience
approved, and about nine o'clock, the crew
having been brought off, she was set on fire.
A number of men joined us from the last
prize and we were now pretty thoroughly
manned, thanks to the recruits we had first
and last obtained from the enemy.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   183
We then continued our course, steaming
to the northward and eastward, and ere
nightfall passed the burning hulk of the Sophia Thornton.
There was a heavy ice floe in sight, which
necessitated the keeping of a bright lookout
on board for fear of running into it. Ships,
sailing in the direction we were, always keep
to the westward of the ice, on account of the
current which sets so strongly toward that
point of the compass.
All day long the ice could be seen on our
starboard beam, extending as far as the eye
could reach.
About six in the evening we discovered a
sail and proceeded in chase, but the fog came
on so thick that we were obliged to abandon
it for fear of running into some unknown
danger, from which we could not extricate
ourselves.
The most of the day the men had been
busily engaged in killing hogs, of which we




184     THE SHENAND OAH; OR THE
had an abundance, that had been captured
with prizes. Pork must be a favorite article
of diet among whalemen, at least, I do not
recollect that we took a single vessel after
entering the Ochotsk Sea, that did not have
at least half a dozen swine on board.
We had now advanced so far north that
night and day were mere arbitrary terms.
For an hour or two there was a subdued
twilight, or rather lack of sunshine, but at
any time during the twenty-four hours there
was no difficulty in reading ordinary print
without the aid of artificial light.
No one can conceive until they have experienced it, the strange effect produced upon a
native of the Temperate Zones by the endless
day of the polar regions. There is something
so supernatural and fantastic in the sight of
the suil travelling perpetually round the horizon, just dipping beneath it at one point for
a brief space, instead of seeing it at an
angle of about sixty degrees as with us, that




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   185
until you become in a measure accustomed to
it, to sleep is almost an impossibility. But
trying as is the long day, the long night is
infinitely worse, according to the testimony
of all who have experienced it.
The morning of the 21st of June found us
surrounded by a fog of unusual density, and
we were under the necessity of lying to in
consequence. Indeed, to see a ship's length
in any direction was utterly impossible, and
with huge fields of ice drifting near us, and
anon crashing together with a report like
thunder, our situation was anything but desirable. But this is only one of the many dangers incident to Arctic sailing. It is a region
of terrors, which start up grim and formidable
on every side, and absolutely without an
attractive feature save the wealth borne on
the backs of the great right whales, or worn
in the shape of choice furs by the seals that
inhabit its waters, and the foxes and sables
that abound upon its icy shores; and for
16l




186     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
wealth, man will dare any peril, face any
danger.
Before noon the fog had cleared away, and
a few hours later we sighted St. Lawrence
Island, lying almost directly to the southward
of Behring's Straits. It was impossible to
approach very near it on account of the ice
which increased in quantity as we advanced
toward the Arctic Ocean. An immense field
lay off our starboard bow, seemingly as impenetrable a barrier to sailing in that direction as a similar extent of solid rock.
The island is inhabited by a somewhat
numerous tribe of Esquimaux, who carry on
a considerable trade in furs with whalers and
other vessels that visit these seas.  They
subsist almost exclusively upon the flesh of
seals and walrus, which is generally eaten
raw. How they can exist in a climate where
for two months in the year the mercury
freezes in the thermometer tube, is a mystery
I leave others to explain.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    187
Oh the 25th we commenced steaming, and
from that time till we finally left the Arctic
Seas, we made comparatively little use of our
sails. An extensive ice field was ahead, and
to avoid it we stood directly north.
About 10 A. mi. we saw two sails on the
port beam, and immediately gave chase to
the nearest. She showed the Hawaiian ensign, and as her appearance corresponded
with her flag, we did not intercept her, but
wore around and stood after the other.
About twelve o'clock she showed the
French colors, and as she did not have, on
closer inspection, much of a Yankee look,
we abandoned that chase also, and resumed
our course to the northward and eastward.
The same afternoon we made out a sail on
the starboard bow, and setting such fore and
aft sail as we carried, we gave chase. We
were not long in overhauling her, and, as she.showed the Stars and Stripes, we passed close
under her stern, within hailing distance, or



188     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
dering the Captain to heave to and come on
board with his papers.
The skipper took it very hard, and was
quite disposed to make a personal matter of
it. As he came over the side with his papers, he demanded, in a blustering, querulous
manner, what injury he had ever done us,
that we should hunt him like a wild animal,
and destroy his property.
Of course we assured him that we had no
feelings of personal animosity to gratify, that
our blows were only aimed at his Government, though they might fall heavily upon
private individuals; but this was far from
satisfying him, and I believe, to this day, lihe
is half inclined to the opinion that the Shenandoah went up to the Arctic expressly to
look after his ship, through some spite conceived against himself by the Government of
the Southern Confederacy.
This prize was the General Williams of
New London, and the denizens of that wide



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   189
awake little city, must have been in a most
flourishing financial condition, for she had
more money on board than any vessel we
captured during the entire cruise.
I pray my readers not to permit their expectations to be raised too high. We did not
make quite so good a'haul as some of the old
buccaneers used to when they fell in with a
Spanish ship laden with specie; but we did
secure out of that New Londoner the enormous sum of four hundred dollars, and as I
did not subsequently learn that any prominent New London House went down in consequence of that capture, I inferred, as above
stated, that they must have enjoyed a high
degree of prosperity.
While we were lying near the General
Williams, we saw twenty-five or thirty boats
coming off to us from St. Lawrence Island.
They contained Esquimaux, who brought
with them a quantity of furs and ivory,




190     THE SHENANDOAH; OR TIIE
which they desired to barter for whiskey and
tobacco.
Their boats were ingeniously constructed
affairs. The frame is something like that of
a whale boat, over which is stretched walrus
hide, which renders them completely impervious to water. They are very light and
much better calculated to traverse these icy
seas than wood or even metallic boats.
Few and simple as their implements are,
these nomadic savages succeed in capturing a
good many whales. They first blow a walrus
hide, previously prepared for the purpose,
full of air and to this they fasten one end of
their harpoon line. Watching their opportunity, they dart the harpoon into the whale,
and thus attach to him a great buoy, which
materially interferes with his diving propensities. Another and another is attached to
him in the same- way, until the poor animal
can no longer get below the surface and is in
the end, fairly worried to death.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   191
WVe did a little trading with our Esquimaux
acquaintance, and after they had taken their
departure, we removed the prisoners from
the General Williams, and set her on fire.
We then resumed our course, still working
to the northward and eastward. A little past
three P. M., three sails were reported in sight,
but although a seemingly impassable barrier
of ice stretched between them and our ship,
we ventured into it under steam, and succeeded in passing through it safely.
At one o'clock on the morning of the 26th,
we came up with them. They were the William C. Nye, the Nimrod, and the Catherine,
all of New Bedford. We had little trouble
in capturing these vessels. Not a breath of
air was stirring, and it was of course simply
impossible for them to make even an effort at
escape. We already had on board about one
hundred prisoners, and the officers and crews
of these three prizes would have augmented
the number to about two hundred and fifty, a




192     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
much larger delegation of Yankees than we
cared to have on board the Shenandoah at a
time, with nothing to do but plot mischief; so
after a little consideration, it was decided to
place the last instalment of prisoners in
twelve whale boats, which we took in tow.
Five more ships were now in sight, and
after setting fire to the prizes we steamed
after them.
It was a singular scene upon which we
now looked out.  Behind us were three
blazing ships, wildly drifting amid gigantic
fragments of ice; close astern were the
twelve whale-boats with their living freight;
and ahead of us the five other vessels, now
evidently aware of their danger, but seeing
no avenue of escape.
It was a tortuous way we now had to pursue, winding about among the ice floes like
the trail of a serpent. Six knots an hour
was the highest speed we dare attempt, so
intricate was the navigation, but we at length




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   193
succeeded in penetrating the little fleet for
which we were steering.
We had learned from some of the prisoners that the small-pox prevailed on one of
the vessels, and we consequently gave her a
wide berth, and turned our attention to the
next in order, the General Pike, of New
Bedford, of which we soon made a prize.
Her Captain came on board the Shenandoah,
and gladly agreed to ransom his ship for
thirty thousand dollars, and take our prisoners to the United States.
It required but few moments to arrange
these preliminaries, and ere long our prisoners were paroled and en route for the vessel
that was to take them home, and we were
bearing down upon another, which proved to
be the Gypsy.
It fell to my lot, as being the officer off
duty, to accompany the prize crew on board
of her. The Captain, who met us at the
side, was terribly frightened. He was pale
17




194     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
as a ghost, and could scarcely return an articulate answer to any question addressed to
him. He evidently imagined he was to be
burned with his ship, or at best run up to the
yard-arm, and could scarcely believe it when
I assured him  that no personal injury or
indignity was intended him.
His cabin was a most luxuriously fitted up
affair for an Arctic whaler. There was a fine
library, comprising some two hundred volumes, a beautiful writing-desk, and indeed all
his furniture in style and finish would have
done credit to a well-appointed drawing-room.
He had also several cases of choice wines
and liquors, Which I destroyed to prevent the
sailors from getting at them, reserving a bottle or two with which to treat my crew when
they returned, after discharging the duty
assigned us.
It had been the custom of the Gypsy's
skipper to take his wife with him on his voy



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    195
aging, but fortunately she had remained at
home this cruise.
In a little time the officers and crew of the
Gypsy had been paroled and transferred to
the General Pike, a few furs and trinkets
were appropriated, and the torch was applied.
An hour later the barque Isabel had been
brought to and boarded, her crew sent off to
join their countrymen, and we hauled along
side of her for the purpose. of filling our
tanks from her water casks.
Having secured what water we wished, we
steamed off a little way and set her on fire,
and lay to to wait for our boat and its crew,
who had performed this last duty.
As soon as they were on board we got
under way, still standing to the northward.
On the 27th of June we let our fires go
down, lowered our smoke-stack, and commenced beating to the northward under sail.
Five ships were in sight, tacking about, little




196     TIfE SHENANDOAH; OR TEE
thinking what a dangerous foe was in their
vicinity. The weather was cold and foggy,
with a good breeze blowing, consequently we
made no dash at the fleet, as a part of them
would undoubtedly succeed in escaping while
we were dealing with the rest. We preferred to wait for a calm when we could
swoop down upon them and secure the
whole.
The morning of the 28th opened with very
little wind and a clear sky. It was one of
the pleasantest days we experienced from the
time we entered the Ochotsk Sea until we
finally got clear of those icy regions. There
were eight sails in sight in different directions, and land was visible on our port beam.
Quantities of ice were setting to the southward and eastward, and about half past six
we saw Diomede Island, about twelve miles
distant.
At eight o'clock we commenced what
proved to be our last day's warfare against




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    197
the commerce of the United States, by starting in chase, under steam, of a sail we
sighted a little way to the southward.
At ten o'clock we captured the barque
~Waverly, of New Bedford, with five hundred
barrels of oil. Her officers and crew were at
once sent on board the Shenandoah, after
which she was set on fire, and we steered off
to the westward until twelve o'clock and then
shaped our course to the northward, passing
through an extensive field of ice, and at half
past one, neared a fleet of ten ships at the
entrance of Behring's Straits.
For the purpose of deceiving them we
hoisted the United States flag, though there
was not a breath of wind at the time and not
a shadow of a chance for any one of them to
escape. It seemed as though the Fates had
interposed to render our last achievement the
most imposing and brilliant of the cruise, if
not of the war.
One ship, the Brunswick, from New Bed17*




198     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
ford, had been stove, and now flew signals
of distress.  Under these circumstances it
is the custom  of whalers to collect all the
vessels of the fleet within signalling distance,
and, if the craft is found so badly injured
that it is impossible to repair her, an auction
is improvised, and she is sold to the highest
bidder.
It was for such a purpose that the whaling
fleet of Behring's Straits had assembled on
that 28th of June, 1865, ill-omened day for
them and the insurance offices of New Bedford!
Seeing our vessel standing in with the
United States flag at her peak, a boat came
off from the disabled Brunswick to ascertain
if our Captain could lend them a carpenter
or two and render any other little assistance
that might be required.
We received the delegation with grave
faces, and informed them that their wants
should all be attended to, in due time. Our




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   199
boats were then made ready for lowering, and
officers and men were detailed to board the
whalers and bring off their captains and
mates.
When all was ready, the boats started from
our ship with one accord, the United States
ensign was hauled down, the Confederate run
up in its place, and a blank cartridge fired
toward the centre of the fleet.
All now was consternation. On every deck
we could see excited groups gathering, gazing
anxiously at the perfidious stranger, and then
glancing wistfully aloft where their sails hung
idly in the still air. But look where they
would, there was no avenue of escape.  The
wind, so long their faithful coadjutor, had
turned traitor, and left them, like stranded
whales, to the mercy of the first enemy.
I said all was consternation, but that statement needs qualifying, for on board one ship,
the Favorite, there was nothing of the sort.
As soon as it dawned upon her grim old Cap



200     THE SHENAND)OA H; OR THE
tain that a wolf in sheep's clothing had strayed
into their fold, he mustered his men on deck,
armed them with muskets, got up his- old
bomb gun, an instrument made use of by
some vessels to discharge the harpoon into
whales, and stood resolutely on the defensive,
a cutlass in one hand and an old-fashioned
navy revolver in the other.
"Boat ahoy?" he bellowed, as soon as our
little craft was within hailing distance.
"Ahoy!" responded the officer in charge,
somewhat taken aback.
"Who are you, and what do you want?"
was his next salutation.
" We come to inform you that your vessel
is a prize to the Confederate Steamer Shenandoah."
"I'll be d-d if she is, at least just yet,
and now keep off or I'll fire into you."
The old Spartan began to squint along his
bomb gun, and the men to handle their muskets in such a decidedly business-like manner,




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUiSER.   201
that it was perfectly apparent that he intended
to carry his threat into execution.
Seeing this, the officer in charge of the
boat hailed our ship, reported the state of
things, and wished to know if it was the Captain's desire that he should board her in spite
of resistance.
Captain Waddell ordered the boat back to
the Shenandoah, which immediately steamed
towards the contumacious Yankee, and ranged
alongside.
The Skipper still stood by his bomb gun
with his forces drawn up on deck as though
he actually meditated fighting it out.
"Haul down your flag!"  shouted the
officer of the deck as soon as we were near
enough for his voice to be heard on board the
stranger.
"Haul it down yourself! G-d d-n you!"
was the plucky response, "if you think it
will be good for your constitution."




202     THE SHENXANDOAH; OR THE
" If you don't haul it down we'll blow you
out of water in five minutes."
" Blow away, my buck, but may I be eternally blasted if I haul down that flag for any
cussed Confederate pirate that ever floated,"
was the defiant rejoinder.
Captain Waddell had stood an amused
spectator of this scene, and so much did he
admire the old fellow's bravery, though much
could not be said for his discretion, that he
would not permit a shot to be fired into his
ship, but dispatched an armed boat's crew to
bring him off.
When he came on board, it was evident he
had been seeking spirituous consolation,
indeed to be plain about it, he was at least
three sheets in the wind, but by general consent he was voted to be the bravest and most
resolute man we captured during our cruise.
By five o'clock we had made prizes of the
whole fleet, ten sail in all.  One of them,
the James Murray, had lost her Captain a




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   203
short time previous, but his widow with her
three little children were still on board.
The lady was very much frightened when
the boarding officer stepped on deck and besought him, with tears in her eyes, not to
destroy the ship that had been her husband's
home so long.
As gently as possible he soothed her fears,
telling her that no harm should befall her or
the ship, through our instrumentality.
The James Murray was accordingly ransomed, and her mate was directed to take the
vessel to the United States, with as many
prisoners as could be conveniently accommodated.
Another of the number, the Nile, was also
ransomed as a transport for the remaining
prisoners, and when these had received their
passengers, the remainder of the captured
vessels were set on fire.
The following are the names of the vessels
captured that day:




204     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
Ships Hillman, Nassau, Isaac Howland,
and Brunswick. Barques Martha 2d, Congress, Waverly, and James Murray.  All
these belonged to New Bedford, besides the
Nile of New London, and the Favorite of
Fair Haven.
We hauled off to a little distance and anchored with a kedge, to watch the mighty
conflagration our hands had lighted.
It was a scene never to be forgotten by any
one who beheld it. The red glare from the
eight burning vessels shone far and wide
over the drifting ice of those savage seas;
the crackling of the fire as it made its devouring way through each doomed ship, fell
on the still air like upbraiding voices. The
sea was filled with boats driving hither and
thither, with no hand to guide them, and
with yards, sails, and cordage, remnants of the
stupendous ruin there progressing. In the
distance, but where the light fell strong and
red upon them, bringing out into bold relief




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   205
each spar and line, were the two ransomed
vessels, the Noah's Arks that were to bear
away the human life which in a few hours
would be all that was left of the gallant
whaling fleet.
Imagination assisted us no doubt, but we
fancied we could see the varied expressions
of anger, disappointment, fear, or wonder,
that marked the faces of the multitude on
those decks, as their eyes rested on this last
great holocaust; and when, one by one, the
burning hulks went hissing and gurgling
down into the treacherous bosom of the
ocean, the last act in the bloody drama of
the American civil war had been played.
Widely different were the arenas that witnessed the opening and concluding scenes.
The overture was played by the thunder of
artillery beneath the walls of Sumter, with
the breath of April fanning the cheeks of
those who acted there their parts, while all
the world looked on; the curtain finally fell
18




206     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
amid the drifting ice of the Arctic Seas;
burning vessels formed a pyrotechnic display
such as the children of men have seldom
looked upon, while a grim and silent cruiser,
that had, even then, no government nor
country, and two weather-beaten whalers,
filled with despondent prisoners, were the
only audience.
From one of these last prizes we obtained
the first news from the States we had received for many months. She had San Francisco papers bearing date the fifteenth of
April, and containing intelligence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The news occasioned a general feeling of
astonishment and indignation throughout the
Shenandoah.  That one who sympathized
with the Southern cause should have deliberately planned and executed an act that
would strike with horror every honorable
man, whatever his partisan sentiments might
be, and thus redound to the discredit of the




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   20"
Government for whose success he professed
to be laboring, seemed passing strange. It
was even then shadowed forth in the papers
we perused so far from the place of their
publication, that designing men would endeavor to fasten upon the Southern people at
large, and especially upon their leaders, the
odium of that hideous crime. That this has
since been done, the world is well aware, but
only the Southern people know how cruelly
unjust is such an accusation.
It must be borne in mind that although
this was the 28th of June, we had as yet
received no tidings of the cessation of hostilities between the United States and the Confederacy. So far as we knew, our armies,
though repulsed at many points, and sadly
depleted in numbers, were still making a gallant stand against the Northern hordes, which
eventually overran our unhappy country,
bearing down all resistance before them;
consequently our hearts were buoyed up with




208     THE SHENANDOAHI; OR TIIE
the thought that we were still aiding the
great cause to which we had devoted our
lives and fortunes.
From some source best known to himself,
our pilot Manning, now advanced to the position of Acting Master's Mate, learned that a
fleet comprising about sixty sail, had passed
up through Behring's Straits into the Arctic
Ocean, but a short time previous. Of course
they were still somewhere in the ice-bound
sea, from which there was no exit save the
passage by which they had entered it, and we
determined to overhaul them if that was
possible.
At eleven o'clock P. M. we hove up our
kedge and once more commenced steaming
north, and by ten o'clock on the morning of
the 29th we had passed through Behring's
Straits, within sight, at the same time, of the
extreme frontiers of Asia and North America,
and were fairly within the Arctic Circle.
It was a desolate prospect that met our




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   209
view.  We were at last launched on the
Arctic Ocean, within whose cold embrace
was clasped the prize we so much coveted;
but now as far as the eye could reach, extended one vast unbroken sea of ice, where
two weeks before, had been comparatively
open water.
To attempt to penetrate such barriers
would have been sheer madness. -The undertaking would have been attended with the
gravest peril, even with the auxiliary of a
vessel expressly fortified and strengthened for
the rough encounter, and after a brief consideration, Captain Waddell decided to make
no further effort to penetrate the Polar Sea,
and I do not think there was an officer or
man on board who did not acquiesce in the
wisdom of the decision.
The same afternoon, therefore, we put about
and steamed southward, and ere the hour
which should have brought nightfall, passed
the burning hulks we had set on fire the pre18*




210     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
ceding day, and we also had a last view of
the two ships containing our prisoners, something over four hundred all told.
It was a relief to feel that we were again
bound for the genial region of the tropics,
our intention now being to cruise on the
Pacific coast in the hopes of capturing one or
more of the rich steamers that ply between
San Francisco and Panama.
How others may have felt I know not, but
for myself, I am free to confess, that I had
had enough of Arctic cruising, and if I never
look again upon those icy seas and barren
shores, fit residences only for Esquimaux,
seals, and Polar bears, it will not occasion me
one moment's regret.
In our outward passage through the Straits,
we had an illustration of the exuberance of
animal life existing in these rigorous waters.
Hundreds of walruses were disporting around
us, now raising their huge bulks above the
surface of the water and uttering their




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    211
strange roaring cry, and anon disappearing
beneath their native element.
We were much annoyed by the everlasting
fogs prevailing in these latitudes, on our
passage out, and several times were in imminent danger from this cause.
On the evening of the 30th, just as the sun
was dipping below the horizon, our ship suddenly brought up all standing on a heavy
cake of field ice. Officers were thrown from
their berths and men from their hammocks,
by the force of the concussion, and for a time
the impression was general that we had
struck upon a rock, and sustained serious if
not fatal injury.
It was not long before we ascertained our
real situation. The yards were braced back
to permit the ship to go astern, while a number of men went over the side upon the floe
and made lines fast by means of crowbars
and kedges secured in the ice.
By such means and appliances we at last




212     THE SHENA NDOAH; OR THE
succeeded in escaping from the dangerous
locality into which we had wandered unwittingly in consequence of the fog, but it was
a narrow escape, and had we not struck upon
the floe, we should probably have been beset
for a considerable time.
When daylight returned, a cheerless spectacle was revealed to us. Ahead of us and
on both bows were great fields of floating, ice
extending to the utmost verge of vision, and
for awhile it seemed as though we were to
experience another jam, but ere long, another
stretch of water opened, into which we
steamed, more because it was the only space
of open water than because it promised an
avenue of escape, and continued our slow
and painful progress southward, the ice parting before us as we advanced, as though on
purpose to let our good ship through.
After four or five hours of such anxious
navigation we sighted the open water again,
and finally, thank God! reached it, having




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    213
passed almost scathless the many perils by
which we had been menaced.
The next day we passed a small island
owned by the Russians, which is widely
celebrated among the frequenters of these
waters for the fur seals with which it
abounds. It is a constant source of temptation to American whalers, who, whenever
opportunity offers, organize a fillibustering
expedition against these furry denizens of
the far north, and the consequence is, a lively
feud is generally on the tapis between some
of them and the subjects of the Czar, who
take in high dudgeon this trespass upon their
hunting-ground.
We were still fairly within the right whaling-ground, and of course entertained the
hope of falling in with a few more prizes
before bidding a final adieu to the Arctic
Seas, but in this we were disappointed. We
saw no more whalers after'leaving Behring's
Straits, and about the 1st of July we passed




214         THE SHEENANDOAH.
out between two of the islands that form a
chain running east and west, about 538 north
latitude, and saw the open Pacific stretching
away broad and inviting before us.
A few sheets of copper chafed off by our
rude encounters was the most serious loss we
had sustained.




CHAPTER IX.
THE RETURN VOYAGE TO LIVERPOOL.
THE principal part of the duty assigned us
had been discharged in the destruction
and dispersing of the New England whaling
fleet, and it was with feelings of profound
relief that we at last saw these frozen seas,
with their many perils seen and unseen,
where for weeks we had been battling with
ice, or groping blindly in impenetrable fogs,
fading in the distance.
All were in good spirits, as we had reason
to be, after performing well, a laborious and
in many respects unpleasant duty, and as
each day carried us nearer these genial seas
where for a time we expected to cruise, the
(215)




216    THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
memory of many hardships faded from our
minds. Thus we sped us on our way.
Three weeks took us fairly into warm
weather again, and never was the advent of
balmy air and soft breezes hailed with more
genuine delight.  Heavy woollen clothing
began to be no longer an indispensable concomitant of comfort, and a watch on deck
instead of an irksome duty, had become a
pleasant pastime. The crew were engaged
in cleaning and painting the ship, and ere
many days, the battered and weather-worn
look she had acquired while boxing about in
Arctic ice, had disappeared, and she once
more assumed her old time tidiness.
We saw no sail after leaving the Straits on
the 30th of June, until the 2d of August,
when we sighted a barque. The wind was
very light, so we got up steam, and stood
toward her, flying the English ensign at our
peak. As we approached, she showed the
same colors, and although we had no reason




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   217
to doubt from her general appearance but
that she had a perfect right to carry the flag
she flew, we stopped our engines and dispatched an officer on board, in the hope of
obtaining some comparatively recent news
from the world of which we had known so
little for many weary months.
In the course of half an hour the boat
returned, bringing intelligence of the gravest
possible moment. The Southern cause was
lost, - hopelessly - irretrievably - and the
war ended. Our gallant generals, one after
another, had been forced to surrender the
armies they had so often led to victory.
State after State had been overrun and occupied by the countless myriads of our enemies,
until star by star the galaxy of our flag had
faded, and the Southern Confederacy had
ceased to exist.
Sadder still were the tidings that our civil
Chief, who, with untiring energy and perseverance, had striven for four long, bloody
19




218     THE SHE NA NDOAH; 0 R THE
years to accomplish our independence; hopeful always when others despaired, devising
some new scheme to prolong the struggle,
when further resistance, to minds less clear
and comprehensive than his, seemed impossible; believing in the justice of his cause,
and therefore fearing not to leave the event
in the hands of the God he trusted, was a
captive, loaded with fetters and closely guarded in the casemate of a fortress, charged with
being an accessory to the murder of Abraham
Lincoln.
The news gathered from the Barracouta
was as overwhelming as it was unexpected,
and every man felt as though he had just
learned of the death of a near and dear relative. Indeed, it is seldom that men find
themselves so strangely circumstanced as we
then were, and we might well feel serious apprehension.
It had been three months since hostilities
ceased, leaving us without a flag or a coun



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   219
try, and during that time we had been actively engaged in preying upon the commerce
of a Government that not only claimed our
allegiance, but had made good her claim by
wager of battle.
It required no prophet to foretell'what
construction the people of the North would
put upon our actions. VWe well knew the
inveterate hatred with which they regarded
the people of the seceded States. From the
first they had stigmatized our cruisers as pirates, even when we were recognized as belb
ligerents by the leading Powers of the world,
and they would not be likely to let slip such
an opportunity as our last escapade had furnished them with, to glut their vengeance
with our blood, should we fall into their
hands.
True, it would have been apparent to any
unprejudiced person that cruising as we had
been in the Arctic Seas, entirely out of the
track of news, we could not have become




220     THE S HENANDOAH; OR THE
cognizant, except through the interposition
of a miracle, of any event transpiring in the
United States, short of three or four months;
but the people, who, without a shade of reason, could incarcerate Jefferson Davis, and
accuse him of being implicated in a brutal
murder, would not he very apt to see any
extenuating circumstance in our case, and
every man of us knew that if the Shenandoah
was captured before she could reach an English port, that his days were numbered.
The officers of the Barracouta deeply
sympathized with us in our unpleasant dilemma, but they could do nothing save wish
us God-speed and a safe deliverance from the
hands of our enemies; but it was very
evident they entertained small hopes of our
eluding the many snares that were and would
be set for our feet. Several United States
cruisers and one English man-of-war, they
knew, had been dispatched in search of us,
and it was like running a very gauntlet of




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   221
life to hope to escape all these dangers unscathed.
But there was no use in repining. What
had been done in the past could not be
helped; the record of our deeds was written
in imperishable characters, and could not be
gainsaid. And now that we had no longer
a country to claim our services, self-preservation was the first thing to be considered.
As soon as the English vessel had proceeded on her way, Captain Waddell summoned his whole ship's company aft, and
formally announced to them the startling
intelligence he had just received. No man
of them, he said, had any reason to blush for
the service in which he had been engaged;
our cruise had been projected and prosecuted
in good faith; it had inflicted heavy blows
upon the commerce of our late enemies,
which would not soon be forgotten; but now
there was nothing more to be done but to
secure our personal safety by the readiest
19*




222     THIE S.HENANDOAH; OR THE
and most efficacious means at hand. As a
cruiser we had no longer a right to sail the
seas, for in that character we were liable to
capture by the ship of any civilized nation,
for we had no longer a flag to give a semblance of legality to our proceedings.
The address was listened to respectfully,
and after a brief consultation among themselves, the crew presented a petition signed
by nearly all of their number, requesting our
Captain to proceed at once to Sydney, Australia, the nearest English port, and there
abandon the ship to Her Majesty's authorities, and let each man look out for his Mowi
personal safety.
Captain Waddell at once professed to accede to this request, and for twenty-four
hours the vessel was actually headed for
Sydney; but events proved that he had
really no intention of ever going there, and
at the expiration of the time I have mentioned, he altered the course of the ship




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    223
without announcing the fact to any one, and
steered for Cape Horn en route for Liverpool.
From a letter of Captain Waddell's, which
will be found in the latter part of this volume, it will be seen that he gives a somewhat
different version of this affair, but- I speak
from my own personal knowledge when I say
that he promised his crew to run the Shenandoah into Sydney, and then, without their
cognizance, steered for another and more distant port, thus subjecting them to what they
considered unnecessary peril, for the sake of
securing a considerable sum of money which
he knew to be lodged in the hands of one of
our secret agents at' Liverpool, and I farther
assert that nothing like a mutinous spirit
even, unless a. petition they subsequently
submitted may be called so, was ever manifested by any officer from the time we left
the English shores till we returned to them.
It will be remembered that when we first




224     THE SIIENANDOAH; OR THE
set sail from Madeira, the labor devolved
upon us of transforming the merchantman
Sea King into the cruiser Shenandoah, and
now, so far as possible, that work was to be
undone, and with sad hearts we betook ourselves to the task. The same tackles which
had been used in transferring our armament
from the Laurel to our decks, were again got
aloft to assist in dismounting the heavy guns,
and striking them below, beyond the reach
of prying eyes - port holes were closed up,
our smoke stack whitewashed, and in appearance our ship was a quiet merchantman,
peacefully pursuing her way, with naught to
apprehend from any vessel she might encounter on the high seas.
The hilarity which had so long been
observable throughout the ship, was now
gone, and there were only anxious faces to
be seen in cabin, ward-room, and forecastle.
The lookouts, it was true, still mounted aloft,
but it was not to scan the seas for ships that




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   225
might be captured, but to maintain a faithful
watch and ward over any suspicious sail that
might make its appearance above the horizon.
While rolling down toward the Cape, with
the "brave westerlys" astern, the lookout
one day reported'a vessel with all sail set,
to foretop-mast studding sail, standing very
nearly on the same course as ourselves.
Our glasses soon revealed the fact, that she
was English, and not a man-of-war, consequently there was nothing to apprehend from
her, and as she seemed to bear a singular
family likeness to our own good ship, we resolved to have a nearer view of her.
At the time we were under top-gallantsails, but before many minutes the topmen
were aloft loosing the royals which were soon
sheeted home, and hoisted away. The foretopmast studding sail was also broken out,
and swayed aloft, the tack hauled out, the
sheet sent down, and away we went to try
our speed with the stranger. She seemed to




226     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
understand that a race was on the tapis, and
immediately began to show more canvas.
For a time it was doubtful how the contest
would end. Both had a heavy press of sail,
and were dancing along at the rate of twelve
or thirteen knots an hour, but the Shenandoah was too much by the head and at last it
became apparent that the stranger was slowly
leaving us. Observing this we signaled her,
to learn who and what she was, and the bunting soon informed us that it was the sister
ship of our own, built by the same firm on
the Clyde, and in brief, one was almost a
counterpart of the other. It was the first
time we had fallen in with a vessel that could
outsail us, and had we been in equally good
trim with the Englishman, I do not think
either would have had an opportunity of
claiming a victory.
We made a splendid run from the line to
the Cape and nearly rounded it, well to the
southward, without any incident worth record



LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    227
ing, but we were not destined to get entirely
clear of the Horn without a specimen of the
tempestuous weather for which that locality
is so widely celebrated.
We were just congratulating ourselves
upon our fortunate passage round this dreaded
Cape, when we encountered a gale which for
a few hours was absolutely terrific, and lay to
under close reefed main-topsail, and fore
storm staysail, with a tarpaulin in the fore
rigging to ride it out. The sea ran mountains high, dashing its spray far up into the
rigging, and more than one huge wave made
a clean breach over us, leaving such a quantity of water on our decks, as to engender at
times grave fears for our safety. The ship
was tossed about like a cockle shell, but hap,
pily we sustained no serious injury, and when
the tempest had finally blown itself out we
got clear of " old Cape Misery," as it is sometimes aptly called by sailors, and were once
more standing on our course to the eastward,




228     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
but keeping much further to the south than
is ordinarily done by vessels bound for the
port that we were, to avoid falling in with
any cruisers that might be looking for us.
Within the next few days we passed a good
many icebergs, some of them hundreds of feet
in height, slowly drifting as they were influenced by the under currents of the ocean, fit
representatives of the Antarctic region from
whence they came.
One day we passed no less than fourteen of
them. I obtained the altitude of the largest
by means of the sextant, and found that from
its visible base to the pinnacle, it measured no
less than three hundred and twenty feet.
When first discovered it bore a striking resemblance, in form, to a church with a lofty
pointed spire but as we neared it and it gradually turned it assumed the appearance of a
mere shapeless block of polar ice, in parts
white and sparkling in the sun's rays like




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    229
crystal, and in others deep blue and seemingly as imperishable as solid rock.
Of course long before this time the crew
had discovered that whatever part of the
world they might be steering for, they were
certainly not heading for Australia, and some
dissatisfaction was felt, not only by them, but
by the officers, at Captain Waddell's open
violation of his pledge.
Justice compels me to say that the Captain's conduct was not free from censure. He
had his own reasons, as I have intimated, for
preferring to reach Liverpool and there surrender his ship, but he should have announced this fact in the first place instead of
promising what he did not intend to perform,
and thus leading many to apprehend that he
was actuated by some motive that would not
bear explanation.
About this time a petition was gotten up
among the officers, and signed by all of them
with the exception of five, requesting the
20




230     THE SHElAVlNDOAI; OR THE
Captain to run for Cape Town, then to the
eastward of us, and there surrender the ship
to the proper authorities.
To this petition he vouchsafed no response
direct or otierwise. WVith the quartermaster
he held long, confidential interviews, and to
him confided his plans, which he studiously
concealed from one and all of his officers,
and it was only through this subaltern that
we could obtain any information as to where
we were bound, though of course our destination was by many suspected.
Such conduct was as injudicious as it was
unjust, and gave rise to grave suspicions
touching our commander's integrity of purpose, which, I am sorry to say, the event did
not prove to be altogether unfounded.
At length, after several days had passed
without any notice being taken of his officers'
petition, he called the five who had not
signed it, upon the quarter-deck, and for the




THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE      231
first time informed them that he intended
taking the ship to Liverpool.
I was one of the five. For myself, I preferred to take the chances of reaching that
port where there was a probability at least
that some provision had been made for us,
to steering for Sydney or Cape Town, where
we should have found ourselves destitute in a
foreign country, whose Government, however
warmly it professed to sympathize with the
Confederacy in the times when she gallantly
held at bay the mighty power of the United
States, would have few words of welcome for
the last of her adherents in this day of adversity. As in the olden time, when the
wayfarer from Jerusalem to Jericho fell
among thieves and was passed by by the
Priest and Levite, so might we expect to
receive at the hands of the world the treatment usually meted out to men who have
been engaged in an enterprise that proved a
failure; and if some good Samaritan met us




232     THE SHENANIVDOAH; OR THE
with wine and oil, it was more than we could
with reason anticipate.
But although I differed from my brother
officers as to the expediency of their proposed measure, I fully agreed with them in
regarding the conduct of Captain Waddell as
unwarranted and ungentlemanly, and the
letter he subsequently wrote denouncing them
as mutineers, was one of the most dastardly
returns a commander ever made to officers
who from first to last had faithfully discharged every duty assigned them, and certainly never committed an act to sully their
honor while on board the Shenandoah.
When about four hundred miles from the
Azores, we sighted a suspicious looking sail
which seemed to bVe lying to as though waiting for us. The wind was very light, and
feeling considerable apprehension as to the
stranger's character, we wore ship and stood
to the southwest, getting up steam in the
meantime as rapidly as possible; but that




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   233
was an operation that required something
like two hours, as we had been under sail
ever since parting from the Barracouta.
As soon as our engines were rendered
available, we furled all sail and steamed due
east for about sixteen hours, making altogether a pretty wide detour. My own impression is, that she was a Yankee cruiser,
and if the surmise is correct, we came near
falling into the enemy's clutches, for she was
only about six miles distant when first discovered.
About two weeks before our arrival in
Liverpool, we were called upon to pay the
last sad offices to one of our shipmates, who,
just before the conclusion of that eventful
voyage, launched out upon the great ocean
of eternity. His name was George Canning,
and he was one of those who had joined us
at Melbourne, and had been promoted to be
Sergeant of Marines. He represented, and
we had no reason to doubt it, that he had
20*




234     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
formerly been an officer on General Polk's
staff, and, while thus serving his country, had
received, at the battle of Shiloh, a ball
through one of his lungs, which incapacitated
him for soldiering.
The wound had never entirely healed, and
through it his life finally oozed away. He
had been for some time unable to perform
active duty, but his danger had not been considered imminent up to the very night of his
death.
It so chanced that he was alone, with the
exception of his attendant, an old negro, in
his last moments. For an hour or more he
had been lying quietly in his berth, apparently suffering little pain, when suddenly he
reached forth his hand and grasped that of
his sable companion.
"Good-by Weeks," he said, "I am going.
Take care of yourself, old fellow;" and the
next moment poor Canning was dead.
That night the body was draped for its




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   235
ocean grave in sailor fashion, by being sewn
up in his own hammock, to the foot of which
were securely fastened two thirty-two pound
shot, and the next day the boatswain's whistle summoned " all hands to bury the dead."
A more solemnly impressive scene than a
burial at sea can scarcely be imagined. At
the well-known signal the whole ship's company assembled on deck, not with the gay
alacrity that characterizes their movements
when responding to any other summons, but
with slow steps and serious faces that were in
keeping with the occasion.
Upon a smooth plank, one end of which
rested on the taffrail, while the other was supported by two seamen, lay the enshrouded
form of our late comrade, while near by
stood the ship's surgeon with open prayerbook in hand, to read the solemn Burial Service of the Roman Catholic Church, to which
the deceased had been attached.
All remained uncovered while the surgeon,




236     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
with impressive voice and manner, recited the
solemn formula, and as he repeated the words,
"We therefore commit his body to.the deep,
looking for the general resurrection in the
last day, when the earth and sea shall give
up their dead," the inner end of the plank
was lifted, and with a sullen plunge the body
disappeared forever from our view.
Of Canning's antecedents we knew nothing, beyond what I have mentioned, but
friends he must have had somewhere upon
the face of the earth, and it must have
seemed hard to die with no loved one near to
minister to his last necessities.
Such, however, is too often the case with
sailors, — the ocean, so long their home, in
the end proves the mausoleum that takes
their bodies to its keeping, and the last
" good-by" is whispered in the ear of some
rough but sympathetic shipmate.
Once Canning had mentioned that he had
a wife living in Paris, and on our arrival in




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   237
port, a notice was inserted in the public journals, mentioning his death, and inviting any
relative who might see it to call at No.'11
Great George's Square, Liverpool, and receive such worldly possessions as he had left.
This death affected us all the more from its
being the only one that had occurred on
board the Shenandoah during her cruise,
with one exception.
A poor Sandwich Islander, who had joined
us from the barque Abigail, the first prize we
captured in the Ochotsk Sea, died on the
return passage, and far away from the sunny
land of his nativity, found a sailor's grave
beneath the blue water.
On the 4th of November, our reckoning
showed us to be near land, and all eyes were
anxiously scanning the horizon, for a glimpse
of old England. We knew not what reception was in store for us, for momentous
changes had taken place since we set forth
on that adventurous pilgrimage round the




238     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THEE
world, but we were weary of suspense and
all were desirous of making port, and learning the worst as soon as possible.
Night, however, closed around us, with
nothing but the heaving sea with which we
had been so long familiar, in sight, and the
followifig morning a dense fog was hanging
over the water, effectually concealing everything from view at a ship's length distance.
Extreme caution was now necessary, as we
had only our chronometers and the patent
log towing astern to rely upon for showing
us our position, but we steamed slowly ahead
with all sails furled, laying our course for St.
George's Channel.
Soon the fog lifted, revealing to our view
the green shores of Ireland, on our port
beam, - the first land we had seen since we
lost sight of the snow-clad bluffs of Northern
America, one hundred and thirty-two days
before.
Notwithstanding the uncertainty in which




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   239
our fate was still enshrouded, there were
nany happy faces to be seen on the Shenandoah's decks that memorable morning, as we
glided on toward Tuska Rock Light.  Soon
we had that abeam, and were steaming, at the
rate of nine knots an hour, to the northward
and eastward toward Holyhead.
Thirteen months before, we set sail from
that point in the steamer Laurel, to join our
ship at Madeira, little anticipating such a
return. Shipwreck, capture, and disaster in
many forms, we were prepared to look forward to as things possible, but the utter
collapse of our Government that had so long
and so successfully stood upon the defensive,
leaving our ship a veritable Ishmael of the
sea, with none to claim or recognize her for
other than a lawless freebooter, was such a
culmination of misfortunes as none of us had
counted upon. And while from full hearts
more than one sincere thanksgiving, silent,
but none the less acceptable perhaps, went




240        THE SBENANDOAH.
up to Almighty God for our almost miraculous escape from those who had gone forth
to hunt us, like wild beasts, to death; there
was many a sorrowful association connected
with this spot, where began and ended our
world-renowned cruise.




CHAPTER X.
THE WELCOME WE RECEIVED FROM OUR ENGLISH
FRIENDS.
AT midnight the pilot boat was seen approaching, and ere long that functionary
was on board. As soon as this was known
every one was on the alert, anxious to see
him and learn what news he had to tell, and
perhaps gain some inkling as to the spirit in
which the wanderers were to be received.
As he came over the side he was met by
our first lieutenant, who bade him " Good
morning."
"Good morning," the pilot responded;
"what ship is this?"
"The late Confederate Steamer Sheaandoah."
21       (241)




242     THE SHIENANDUOA; 01? THE
" The deuse it is! Where have you fellows come from last?"
"From the Arctic Ocean."
"Haven't you stopped at any port since
you left there?"
" No; nor been in sight of land, either.
What news from the war in America? "
" It has been over so long people have got
through talking about it. Jeff Davis is in
Fortress Monroe, and the Yankees have had a
lot of cruisers out looking for you. Haven't
you seen any of them? "
" Not unless a suspicious looking craft we
sighted off the Western Islands was one."
The pilot then took command of the ship
which would have been received in Liverpool
with so much eclat, had our cause triumphed
in the late contest. In that event we should
have been the heroes of the hour, sought
after and feted as we had been at Melbourne,
and crowds of visitors would have besieged
us from morning till night.




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   243
But we had returned under no such auspices and our glory was departed. From no
quarter did we receive a word of cordial welcome, and the journals once most clamorous
for our cause, were the first to bestow upon
us the epithet of "pirates," and to querulously ask why we had come there to get
them  into trouble with the United States.
So much for the disinterested friendship of
Great Britain. As long as their workshops
were busy turning out arms and munitions of
war for our armies in the field, and blockade
runners from Southern ports were arriving at
Liverpool and London, laden with the coveted cotton, they were loud in their protestations of sympathy and friendship; but when
the hour of adversity came, when there was
nothing more to be made out of us, these
fair-weather friends coolly ignored our existence.
Before reaching the city, our pilot managed to run us aground on the bar, where we




244     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
were obliged to remain until the following
morning. During the night, the First Lieutenant came around and warned the officers
to keep their revolvers about them, as he had
seen enough to make him apprehensive that
a plot was on foot among the crew to secure
what valuables there were on board, and decamp. The fear that their wages would not
be forthcoming, had suggested to them this
desperate expedient.
It must be confessed that their prospects
for payment were not brilliant; at least none
but a very credulous man would feel much
confidence in the feasibility of collecting a
debt due him from a defunct Government.
The officers profited by the suggestion,
kept their arms within reach, and maintained
a vigilant watch. The crew made no demonstration, perhaps because they perceived that
their plans were discovered, and that we were
ready for any emergency, and possibly because




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   245
sober second thought had led them to abandon a rashly-formed determination.
Soon after daylight we got clear of the bar,
and steamed up the river toward the city,
with the flag that had accompanied us round
the world, flying at our peak for the last time.
The fog shut out the town from our view,
and we were not sorry for it, for we did not
care to have the gaping crowd on shore witness the humiliation that was soon to befall
our ship.
That afternoon we ranged astern of Her
Britannic Majesty's Ship Donegal, and
dropped anchor.
The First Lieutenant stood upon the poop,
his arms folded on his breast, gazing at the
flag under which he had so long done battle,
and then turned away with tears coursing
down his bronzed cheeks.
He was not alone in this exhibition of
weakness, if such it was, for more than one
eye, unaccustomed to weep, turned aside to
21*




246     THE SHEENANDOAH; OR THE
conceal the unwonted drops, as at a silent
signal the quartermaster hauled down the
Stars and Bars, thereby surrendering the
Shenandoah to the British authorities.
Sorrowfully the master rolled up the old
banner, and carried it to the Captain, but he
declined to encumber himself with it, so he
gave it to his Secretary who was only too
anxious to become its possessor.
That same afternoon the Donegal sent a
prize crew on board, consisting of twentyfive marine's and twenty-five sailors, who took
possession of the ship and held us as prisoners until Her Majesty's pleasure concerning
us was known.
Within the last year we had sent many
prize crews to take possession of captured
vessels, and now our turn had come to receive such an unwelcome delegation, and we
appreciated better perhaps than we had ever
done before, with what feelings of poignant
sorrow men surrender a ship they have




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    247
learned to love, and haul down a flag endeared to them by every sentiment of patriotism.
As soon as practicable, Captain Waddell
delivered to the commander of the Donegal,
the following letter, to be by him forwarded
to Earl Russell.
"STEAMER SHENANDOAH,
November 5, 1865.
"To the RIGHT HON. EARL RUSSELL, Her Britannic Majesty's
Minister for Foreign Affairs:
" I have the honor to announce to your Lordship
my arrival in the waters of the Mersey, with this
vessel late a ship of war in my command, belonging
to the Confederate States of America.
"The singular position in which I find myself
placed and the absence of all precedents on the subject, will I trust, induce your Lordship to pardon a
hasty reference to a few facts connected with the
cruise lately made by this ship.
"I commissioned the ship in October, 1864, under
orders from the Naval Department of the Confederate
States, and in pursuance of the same, commenced
actively cruising against the enemy's commerce. My




248       THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
orders directed me to visit certain seas, in preference
to others. In obedience thereto I found myself in
May, June and July of this year, in the Ochotsk Sea
and Arctic Ocean. Both places if not quite isolated,
are still so far removed from the ordinary channels of
commerce, that months would elapse before any news
could reach them as to the progress or termination
of the American War.
" In consequence of this awkward circumstance, I
was engaged in the Arctic Ocean, in acts of war so
late as the 28th of June, in ignorance of the series
of reverses sustained by our arms in the field, and
the obliteration of the Government under whose
authority I had been acting. This intelligence I received for the first time, on communicating at sea on
the 2d of August, with the British Barque Barracouta
of Liverpool, fourteen days from San Francisco.
"Your Lordship can imagine my surprise at the
receipt of such intelligence, and I would have given
to it little consideration if an Englishman's opinion
did not confirm the war news, though from an
enemy's port.
" I desisted immediately from further acts of war,
and determined to suspend further action, until I had
communicated with a European port, where I could




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.          249
learn if that intelligence was true. It would not
have been intelligent in me, to convey this vessel to
an American port, simply because the master of the
Barracouta, had said the war was ended.
"I was in an embarrassing position. I diligently
examined all the law writers at my command, searching for a precedent for my guidance, in the future
control, management and final disposal of the vessel.
I could find none. History, is I believe, without a
parallel. Finding the authority questionable, under
which I considered this vessel a ship of war, I immediately discontinued cruising, and shaped my course
for the Atlantic Ocean.
" As to the ship's disposal, I do not consider that
I have any right to destroy her, or any further right
to command her. On the contrary, I think that as all
the property of the Confederate Government has
reverted by the fortune of war to the Government of
the United States of North America, that therefore
this vessel, insomuch as it was the property of the
Confederate States should accompany the other property already reverted.
"I have, therefore, sought this port as a suitable
one to learn the news, and if I am without a Government, to surrender the ship, with her battery, small




250      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
arms, machinery, stores, tackle and apparel complete,
to Her Majesty's Government for such disposition as
in its wisdom should be deemed proper.
JAMES I. WADDELL, Commander."
We had now to await an answver to this
letter, which would advise us whether we
were to be held as prisoners by the British
Government, turned over to the United States
authorities, or set at liberty, and there was
enough in the uncertainty involving our fate
to depress the most buoyant spirits.  But
sailors seldom  quite despond.  They generally discover some bright spot in the darkest horizon, and are prompt to take courage
if their situation is anything short of desperate.
As night closed round us, one of the past
midshipmen, with half a dozen of the junior
officers at his heels, made his appearance in
the steerage, and having taken the general
ground that so far from having done anything




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    251
to be ashamed of, we had every reason to be
proud of our exploits, he proposed that care
be kicked to the wall, and all apprehension
drowned in a general jubilee.
It was just the kind of a proposition to
strike favorably a sailor's ear, and ere long, a
frolic was inaugurated that gradually extended through almost the entire ship's company.  A  stranger dropping down among
them would have been justified in thinking,
from the boisterous hilarity everywhere observable, that we had returned in triumph
from some grand expedition, and were celebrating our victories; and had he been told
that that noisy, rollicking company were waiting to learn whether they were to be set free
or handed over to implacable enemies to be
tried for their lives, he would have considered the informer either insane or endeavor
ing to practise upon his credulity.
The next day passed without bringing any
response from Earl Russell to the Captain's




252     THE SHENANDOIAH; OR THE
communication, and among the thinking, the
gravest apprehension began to be entertained.
There was little else talked of among the
officers, and the opinion prevailed that the
British authorities, fearing that they would
be held responsible for the depredations we
had committed, would turn us over as a sort
of peace-offering to appease the wrath of the
United States, and it was tacitly understood
among us that the time had arrived when
each man must look out for himself.
About nine o'clock in the evening I went
on deck, feeling more wretchedly depressed
in spirits than I ever remember to have been
before or since. A miserable, drizzly rain
was falling; in brief, it was the kind of night
to make ono melancholy under any circumstances. I had firmly resolved that the Shenandoah and I should part company that night
at all hazards. I had a constitutional objection to ornamenting the yard-arm of a Yankee
man-of-war, but by the appearance of things,




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   253
I stood a remarkably fair chance of obtaining
that elevated position; but how was I to effect my escape? We were at anchor in the
stream, our decks were closely guarded by
the marines and sailors from the Donegal,
and no boat was allowed to approach us,
under severe penalties.
But the attempt had to be made, -at the
worst I could but fail. Approaching the marine, who was pacing backwards and forwards
near where the accommodation ladder was
suspended over the side, I opened a careless
conversation with him, and, watching my opportunity, slipped into his hands a bottle of
the veritable old whiskey we had captured in
the Ochotsk Sea.
The fellow gave me an intelligent glance,
pocketed his bourbon, and.marched sedately
forward, while I dove down to the ward room
and in a few moments was completely metamorphosed into as genuine an old shell back
as ever broke biscuit in a forecastle.
22




254    TKHE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
As I made my appearance on deck again,
the sentry glanced, with a half-amused expression, at the immense sea boots, oilskin
coat, and sou'wester hat which decorated my
person; but his attention was conveniently
called to something on the opposite side of
the deck, and the next moment I was over
the side and standing on the lower step of
the accommodation ladder, effectually concealed from any on board, unless they were
looking for me at that particular place.
A number of small boats were plying in
various directions, and one of these passed
so near that I was enabled to speak her without unduly elevating my voice. The man
hesitated for some moments, but good nature,
with perhaps the hope of a fitting pecuniary
reward, finally overcame his' prudence. IIe
shot his little craft alongside. I sprang in,
and in an instant was gliding shoreward.
The voyage was accomplished without accident, and ere long I set foot on the landing




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   255
stage of Liverpool. I gave the boatman two
pounds which left me with eight, the sole
proceeds of my thirteen months' cruise in the
Shenandoah.
With such feelings of relief and thankfulness as I am unable to describe, I strode
along up Lime Street, in the direction of the
Washington Hotel, an inn much frequented
by my countrymen. As I approached it I
saw  Mr. Adger, a cotton speculator from
Charleston, with whom I had been well acquainted, standing on the steps.
I went up to him and extended my hand.
He glanced curiously at my outlandish costume, but evidently did not recognize me,
which was encouraging, considering the delicate position in which I was placed, and the
possible necessity of resuming a similar disguise at some future occasion, but when I
told him my name, he grasped my hand with
such genuine warmth, and gave me such a




256     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
cordial welcome, that I felt I had indeed met
a countryman.
Mr. Adger insisted upon my accompanying
him to his own hotel, the Adelphi, and I
complied without much persuasion. The
clerks and attaches of that rather elegant
establishment, stared in blank amazement
when they saw Mr. Adger, whom they well
knew, enter the office, yard arm and yard
arm, with what seemed to be an old salt,
fresh from the forecastle, and their astonishment was in no wise abated, when he
demanded to have me established in the room
adjoining his own.
My friend, in the kindness and generosity
of his heart, would have at once supplied all
my needs from his own purse, but I could
not bring myself to trespass farther on his
bounty, than to accept a hat which I substituted for my sou'wester, and a pair of shoes
to replace my sea boots. Under my oilskin,
I wore a suit of citizen's clothes, so for the




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   257
time being I felt under no particular apprehension of drawing upon myself unwelcome
scrutiny.
The next day I began to feel some compunctions of conscience at the way in which
I had left the ship. It was true I had neither
flag nor country to claim my service, but it
seemed to me on reflection that it would have
been more manly to have remained with my
brother officers, and shared their fate, whatever it might be. The more I thought of it,
the stronger became the conviction, and about
ten o'clock I sallied forth from the Adelphi,
firmly resolved to go on board again and take
my chances with the rest.
At the landing stage, I encountered Captain North, late of the Confederate Navy, and
Mr. Robinson, formerly one of our agents.
On learning of my escape from and intended
return to the Shenandoah, both gentlemen
joined in urging me to desist from my purpose. They argued, and truly, that I could
22*




258     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
do nothing to aid my companions, many of
whom had doubtless, ere this, adopted similar
means of getting out of harm's way. Both
were impressed with the notion that the
ship's company would be transferred to the
United States authorities, which simply meant
resigning them to summary execution, and
recommended me instead of going on board
again to make a strait wake for Paris.
It required but few moments' consideration
to see that this was the council of wisdom,
and there did seem to be a question whether
any code of honor would require me to sacrifice myself with my comrades, when all of us
were powerless to aid each other.
Moodily I walked back to the hotel, revolving these things in my mind. Sometimes
momentarily congratulating myself that I had
acted the part of a sensible man, and again
falling back upon my former opinion that it
was an act of poltroonry to leave my friends




.LASI CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   259
in the hour of danger, whether I could render them any assistance or not.
On gaining the hotel the gratifying intelligence reached me that our troubles were
soon to be over, and fortunately the rumor
was ere long confirmed.
About six o'clock in the evening, Captain
Paynter of the D)onegal, to whom the Shenandoah had surrendered, received a telegram
ordering him to at once release such of the
officers and crew of that ship as were not
British subjects.
As soon as he received these instructions,
Captain Paynter proceeded to the Rock Ferry
slip and applied for a steamboat.  Mr.
Thwarts, who had charge of these boats, at
once placed at his disposal the steamer Bee,
in which he immediately went off to our
cruiser.  On gaining the deck he made
known the object of his visit to Captain
Waddell, who ordered his officers and crew
to be summoned to the quarter-deck. The




260     THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
roll books were brought out, and the names
called in regular order. As each man answered to his name he was asked to what
country he belonged, but in no instance did
any acknowledge himself a British subject.
The majority claimed to be either native or
adopted citizens of America; but several,
who insisted that they had been born in some
one of the Confederate States, had an unmistakably Scotch accent, and probably opened
their eyes for the first time on this world, a
good deal nearer the Clyde than the Mississippi.
This formality having been gone through
with, Captain Paynter informed them that
they were at liberty to proceed on shore, and
the intelligence was received with boisterous
demonstrations of joy. Away they went forward and commenced packing up their bedding and such other articles of personal property as they possessed, which they conveyed




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   261
on board the Bee, waiting to take them off
to the landing stage.
When all were ready to bid a final adieu
to the vessel, they collected forward and gave
three lusty cheers for their late Commander,
and Captain Waddell acknowledged the compliment in a brief but appropriate address.
The crew then went on board the little
steamer, and the last Confederate force was
disbanded.
Among the many excellent and highminded gentlemen who, first and last, during
the war, acted as Confederate Agents in England, Mr. J. D. B - stands preeminent.
For the many and valuable services he rendered to his native country during the hour
of her trial, he steadfastly refused to receive
any compensation. A short time prior to the
final collapse, several thousand pounds of the
Public Fund came into his hands, which he
laid aside, not knowing how else to dispose
of it, to provide for the immediate necessities




262     THE SEENANDOAH; OR THE
of such naval officers of the Confederacy as
the close of the war should leave homeless
and proscribed in England. Two hundred
pounds from this fund was appropriated to
each of the officers of the Shenandoah, as a
just recompense for the long service they had
rendered, and for which they could never
hope to receive any other compensation.
At two different times, this fund, with
directions for its disbursement, was privately
conveyed to Captain Waddell after he landed
in Liverpool, it being of course presumed
that no more trusty custodian could be found
for it.
The event proved that this confidence was
shamefully abused, and a clue was at last
furnished for our Commander's singular anxiety to take his ship to Liverpool instead of
to Sydney or Cape Town.
Before any of his officers had learned of
this provision that kindness and forethought
had made for them, he summoned them to




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.   263
his quarters, — George's Hotel, Dale Street,
Liverpool.  One at a time they were admitted to his presence, and as the humor
actuated him, he presented them from fifty to
one hundred pounds apiece, out of the two
hundred that was justly theirs. A few of
his favorites, I believe, received their full
bounty. The balance he coolly appropriated
to himself, probably as a commission for
transacting the business, nor was this the
whole extent of his peculations.
The paymaster of the ship, Mr. W. Beadlove Smith, who had formerly been Secretary
to the Captain of the Alabama, volunteered
his services to settle with the crew, from the
pay-roll in his possession, but the offer was
declined, and he subsequently sent our old
quartermaster Wiggins, as honest and straightforward an old sailor as ever walked a deck,
to get them together and pay them from one
third to one half of what was actually due
them, and promise the remainder at some




264     THE SHENANDOAH; 0 R THE
indefinite time in the future.  For weeks
after, his residence at Waterloo, a little way
out of Liverpool, was besieged by these poor
men clamoring for the hard-earned pittance
out of which he had mercilessly defrauded
them.
I may mention also, that after getting safely
on shore, Captain Waddell became very solicitous to get possession of the old flag, upon
which he set so little value when it was
offered to him on board the Shenandoah. Its
custodian declined to surrender it, whereupon
the Captain had the effrontery to threaten
him with the loss of his pay and bounty if it
was not given up, but the man who had taken
that flag to his keeping valued it far higher
than pounds and pence, -the threat was
indignantly disregarded, and for once, virtue
was rewarded, for B — got his money.
It is exceedingly painful for a sailor to
write such things concerning a commander
under whom he has served. Had Captain




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    265
Waddell been contented with simply enriching himself at the expense of those who
shared the toils and perils of that cruise,
which has made his name famous, I should
have been silent, for the credit of the service
to which I had the honor to belong, but
when, after all his officers had left England,
and he therefore felt secure from personal
chastisement, he ventured to publish that
atrocious libel concerning their honor and
courage, I could not in justice to myself and
my associates do less than exhibit the man to
the world in his true colors.
I subjoin an extract from his letter to
which I have referred, and with it close this
hasty and inartistically written, but truthful
narrative of the Shenandoah's first and last
cruise.
Extract from a letter written by Captain
Waddell to a gentleman in Mobile, Alabama,
and dated:
23




266      THE SHENA NDOAH; OR THE
" WATERLOO, NEAR LIVERPOOL,
December 27, 1865.
" I am now in exile, but far from being a ruined
man. I wont go to sea any more if I can help it.
The feeling shown towards me, through the restriction placed on my wife, is decided. It is just the
feeling I like, though the tyranny to her is humiliating to the nature of man. I have written her to release her bondsmen, and inform the Government that
she owes her allegiance to her husband. As my case
now stands, I do not think the bond is worth the paper it is written upon. In a Court of law I know it
would fall.
"You have seen Mr. Welles's report, I suppose.
He does me justice when he writes that I ceased my
depredations when I heard Mr. Davis was a prisoner.
He wilfully lies when he writes that I continued
cruising against the unarmed whale ships when I
knew that the arms of the South had surrendered.
"The facts are these. After reaching Behring's
Sea, I captured the ship William Thompson and Brig
Susan Abigail. Both had left San Francisco in April
last. These captures were made about the 23rd of
June, and from each I received San Francisco papers.
These papers professed to have the correspondence




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.    267
between Generals Grant and Lee concerning the surrender of Lee's army. They also stated that Mr. Davis and Cabinet were in Danville, to which the Confederate Government had been removed, and that Mr.
Davis had issued a proclamation informing the Southern people that the war would be carried on with renewed vigor. I was made possessor of as late news
by these two captures, as any the whalers had, and I
continued my work until it was completed in the Arctic Ocean, on the 28th of June, 1865, when I had succeeded in destroying or dispersing the New England
whaling fleet.
" I left the Arctic on the 29th of June, and shipped
from some of the whalers eight men on that very day,
- men of intelligence, all trained soldiers. It is not
to be believed that these men would have taken service in the Shenandoah if they believed the war was
ended.
" After leaving Behring's Sea I fell in with no vessels until I communicated with the British Barque
Barracouta, from San Francisco, August 2d, fourteen
days, bound for Liverpool. She informed me of the
capture of Mr. Davis and a part of his Cabinet, also
of the surrender of Generals Johnston's, Smith's, and
Magruder's armies. The Barracouta furnished that




*268      THE SHENANDOAH; OR THE
news the first time I heard it, and I instantly ceased
to cruise, and steered for Cape Horn.
"Before communicating with the Barracouta I intended to look into the Gulf of Lower California, and
there await the arrival of a California steamer, bound
for Panama. The Barracouta news surprised us, and
among some of the officers I witnessed a terror which
mortified me. I was implored to take the vessel to
Australia; that to try to reach a European port would
be fatal to all concerned. Petitions were signed by
three fourths of the officers, asking to be taken to
Cape Town, arguing and picturing the horrors of capture, and all that sort of stuff. I called the officers
and crew to the quarter-deck, and said calmly to
them;' I intend taking this ship to Liverpool. I
know there is risk to be run, but that has been our
associate all the time. We shall be sought after in the
Pacific and not in the Atlantic.'
"They supported my views, and then followed a
letter from the crew, signed by seventy-one out of
one hundred and ten men, saying they had confidence
in me, and were willing, nay, desired to go with me
wherever I thought best to take the vessel.
"I had of course a very anxious time, - painfully
anxious, because the officers set a bad example to the




LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER.          269
crew. Their conduct was nothing less than mutiny.
I was very decided with some of them. I had to tell
one officer I would be Captain or die on the deck,
and the vessel should go to no other port than Liverpool. So ended my troubles with supplications and
complaints from the officers. The men behaved nobly, and stood firmly to their decision.
"When the ship was four hundred miles from the
Azores, a suspicious looking vessel was seen ahead,
and apparently lying to, waiting for us to come up
with her. It was sunset, the wind very light, and
my suspicions being aroused, I steered my course
steadily until darkness closed upon us, and then I
wore ship and stood southwest until steam could be
gotten up, for I had not even banked fires since parting with the Barracouta. It took two hours to get
steam up. When it was ready, I furled sails and
stood due east for sixteen miles, and hauled on my
course, steaming for one hundred miles. I believe
she was a Yankee cruiser. She was only six miles
off when night came on, but I evaded her successfully.
" The Shenandoah, under sail, is a sixteen-knot vessel; under steam, ten knots; — a fine sea-craft. She
ran from the Arctic to Liverpool in one hundred and
23*




W2 710         THE SHENANDOAH.
thirty days; from the Line on the Pacific to the Cape
in twenty-six days; from the Cape to the Line on the
Atlantic in twenty-six days; and from the Line to
Liverpool in twenty-four days.
"Two of my crew died of disease when near Liverpool; otherwise nothing happened to mar our
cruise. No accident occurred during the cruise.
" So ends my naval career, and I am called a pirate.
I made New England suffer, and I do not regret it.
I cannot be condemned by any honest-thinking man.
I surrendered the vessel to the British Government,
and all were unconditionally released.  My obstinacy made enemies among some of the officers, but
they now inwardly regret their action in the Cape
Town affair.
"t JAMES I. WADDELL."
For List of Prizes captured by the Confederate S.S. "Shenandoah," see pp. 272, 273.








LIST OF PRIZES CAPTURED BY THE CONFEDERATE S.S. "SHENANDOAH."                                                              <
Value.      Date of                                 No. of
Value.   Capture.    From.         Bound to.       r's
Barque Alina, of Searsport, lat. 15~ 25' N., long. 26~ 44' VW.........       $95,000 Oct. 30 Newport... Buenos Ayres....   12
Schooner Charter Oak; San Francisco, lat. 7~ 381 N., long. 27~ 49' W.           15,000 Nov. 6 Boston..... San Francisco....    9
Barque D. Godfrey, Boston, lat. 40 42' N., long. 28~ 24' W..........           36,000   "    8    "....Valparaiso.......   12
Brig Susan, New York, lat. 40 24' N., long. 260 39f W..............            5,436  I"  10 Cardiff..... Rio Grande......       6
S. ship Kate Prince, Pdrtsmouth, N.H., lat. 1~ 45f N., long. 290 22' W. Rsmd.   40,000  "   12.... Bahia, S. A......   20
Schooner L. IM. Stacey, Boston, lat. 1~ 40' N., long. 28~ 24' W......          15,000  "   13 Boston..... Sandwich Islands    6           2
Barque Edward, whaler, N. B., lat. 370 47t S,, long. 120 30' 30"I W..           20,000 Dec.  4 N. Bedford. Whaling.........   25
"    Delphine, Bahgor, Me., lat. 390 131 S., long. 680 33' E......          25,000   "  29 London... Akyab............   17
"    Adelaide, Baltimore, lat. 1~ 45f N., long. 29~ 221 W......... B. Cargo 24,000         Baltimore.. Rio..............   15
"    Pearl, New London, Ascension Island.....................               10,000 April 1 Whaling..................
EdwardCary, San r     ancisco,....................            15,000...............
Ship Hector, New Bedford,            "......................         58,000    ".....................      130
Barque Harvest, Honolulu, ".....................                               34,759'       "....................
"    Abigail, NeWv Bedford, Ochotsk Sea......................               16,705 May 27.....................   36
Ship William Thompson, New Bedford, off Cape Thadevus........                  40,925 June 22.....................   35
"  Euphrates, New Bedford, off Cape Thadevus................                 42,320  "   22    ".....................       35
Barque William C; Nye, New Bedford, neptr Behring Straits.......               31,512  "   25.....................     35
Ship Sophia Thornton,          " ".......                                      70,000  "   22    ".....................    35
Barque Nimrod,                 "                    ".......           29,260  "   25....................      35
" Catherine,                          " ".......                            26,174   "   25     C...........        35




"    Gypsey,                   "                     ".......          34,369   "   25      "....................
"  Isabella,                                     " ".......             38,000 " 25  "..                   3
"    General Pike,             "               "......   R.         30,000   "   25....................    35
"    Favorite, Fairhaven, near Behring Straits.................                   57,896   "   28.....................    35
"    General Williams, N. B.,             c.................              44,740   "   25      ".................  35
"    Congress,.................               55,300   ".....................    35
"  illman,................              33,000        28....................         35
Ship Isaac Howland,             "c............                   75,112   "   28      "...........           35
Brig Susan Abigail, " ".................                                               6,500   "   25      ".20
Ship Nassau,  ".................                                                      40,000        28.....................    35
Barque Nlairtha, N. B., Behring Straits............................                   30,307   c  28...35
1"    Waverly, "...                                62376        28 ".......                     35
"    Covington, N. B.........................................                     30,000   "   28.....................    35
"    Jiveh Swift,  "  near Behring Straits.....................                    61,960   "   22      ".....................    35
Ship Brunswick,         "              c, 16,272,c  28.3
Ship Brunswick,           ".....................18.................       35
"  James Murry, near Behring Straits.                                     R          40,550        28,.......................35
"  Milo.......................................................R.                   30,000   cc  28      ".....................   35
Barque Nile, New London...............................          R.         25,550   "   28..........................    35
1,053._.._.~ ~~~~~~~~4








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