Raphael Semmes

“ The name of your ship has become a household word wherever civilization extends. Shall that name be tarnished by defeat? The thing is impossible! Remember that you are in the English Channel, the theatre of so much of the naval glory of our race, and that the eyes of all Europe are at this moment upon you. The flag that floats over you is that of a young republic, which bids defiance to her enemy's, whenever and wherever found. ”

“ Strolled on the island towards sunset, with the gannets for companions, the surf for music, and the heavy sand for a promenade. The weather cleared at nightfall, with the breeze fresh from the N.N.E. Some of the men are getting tired of their hard service; the chief boatswain's-mate having applied to return to England in the barque. Refused him permission, of course. Constant cruising, vigilance against being surprised by the enemy, salt provisions, and a deprivation of the pleasures of port, so dear to the heart of a seaman, are probably what most of them did not expect. ”

“ If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned in the United States, it is that every nation has the right to abolish an old Government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of a host of American martyrs, but it is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation. ”

“ Steam was at once got up, and the United States colors displayed from the Confederate cruiser. A short pause of expectation, an eager scrutiny of the stranger, as the blue and red bunting fluttered for a few moments upon his deck, while his men were busy with the signal halyards, and then a joyous cheer greeted the well-known stars and stripes, as they rose above her bulwarks, and mounted slowly to her mizen peak. ”

“ A solitary brigantine only was seen, and she so far to windward, that with the short supply of coal afforded by the not overscrupulous merchants of Port of Spain, it was not thought worth while to incur the expense and delay of a chase. The Sumter was now terribly in need of an excitement. Not a living thing was in sight, but the glittering schools of flying fish which ever and anon darted into view, and skimming rapidly over their surface sank again beneath the waves, only to be once more driven for a brief refuge to the upper air by their unseen but relentless enemies below. ”

“ The weather had cleared beautifully, the wind was light from the eastward, and the vessel was gliding smoothly and swiftly, with studding-sails set alow and aloft, over the long, easy swell, which alone remained to tell of the heavy gales of the past fortnight. Every one was enjoying the change, and even the strict discipline of the man-of-war was, for the moment, in some measure relaxed, as officers and men gave themselves up to the full pleasure of a period of sunshine and tranquillity, after the long spell of gloom and storm. ”

“ When one's ship is in a doubtful position, how eagerly and nervously one watches the shifting clouds near noon, and how remorsely they sometimes close up their dense masses just at the critical moment, shutting out from us the narrowly-watched face of the sun! One is foolish enough sometimes almost to feel a momentary resentment against inanimate nature—weak mortals that we are!
The gale has drifted us so far to leeward that the wind from its present quarter will no longer permit us to "lay through" the Yucatan passage, so at 2 P.M. we tacked to the southward and eastward. ”

“ The look-out-man alone, high up on the fore topgallant crosstrees, still swept the horizon as eagerly as ever in search of a prize. At about noon his vigilance was rewarded by the sight of a sail on the port-quarter, and in a moment all was again bustle and excitement on board. Quick as the word could be given, the "flying kites" were furled, yards braced in, and the ship hauled up on a taut bowline in chase. ”

“ Here we fire a gun, and any man with a grain of sense would have understood that it was meant for a ship to heave to, more especially when a nation is at war. You are told to heave to, are boarded, and asked a question. Instead of replying, you ask, perfectly savagely, 'Who are you?' I tell you we are the United States ship Iroquois, and then you ask, 'Are you English? Tell me you are an English man-of-war!' It's absurd, I tell you."
"Mr. Officer," yelled he, "'crazy!' 'sense!' 'absurd!' By G—d, sir, if an English man-of-war were here, no Yankee dare set foot on this deck, sir. Who are you?" ”

“ Will France drive a vessel of war of the Confederate States from one of her islands to a British island to procure coal? And if she does this, on what principle will she do it? It is a well-settled rule of international law, that belligerent cruisers have the right to enter freely into neutral ports for the purpose of replenishing their stores of provisions, or replacing a lost mast or spar; and why should not they be equally permitted to receive on board coal? ”

“ Coal is no more necessary to the locomotion of a steamer than is a mast or spar to a sail-ship; it is no more necessary to a cruiser than provisions. Without a mast or without provisions a sail-ship could not continue her cruise against the enemy; and yet the neutral permitted her to supply herself with these articles. Nor can such supplies as these be placed on the ground of humanity. It would be inhuman, it is true, to permit the crew of a belligerent cruiser to perish in your ports by debarring from access to your markets, from day to day ”

“ In the meantime, allow me most respectfully to protest against the presence of the guard-boat which has been placed in surveillance upon my movements, as though I were an ordinary ship of commerce. Compliance with the laws of quarantine should be left with me as a matter of honour, and the presence of this boat implies the suspicion that a ship of war of a friendly Power could so far forget herself as to infringe the regulations of the port—a suspicion as unworthy the health authorities of the port of Cadiz as it is offensive to me. ”

“ At last the region of endless gales was passed, and escaping entirely the southern belt of calms, the Alabama dashed along in the S.E. trade. On the 26th October, as she was nearing the Line, news reached her from an English barque, that the United States sloop Wyoming was on guard in the Sunda Straits, accompanied by a three-masted schooner. This sloop being about the Alabama's own size, hopes of a fight were again rife among both officers and men; and great was their impatience when the trade at length parted from them, and light, variable winds again began to baffle the eager ship. ”

“ To steer, with a solitary light-armed sloop, close upon a coast, blockaded from north to south, by hundreds of armed vessels, in deliberate quest of a squadron, not improbably four or five times stronger than herself, was an act of almost reckless hardihood, fully in keeping with the rest of the Alabama's career. ”

“ Shipped large quantities of water through the propeller well; cabin-deck leaking.
Tuesday, September 8th.—Weather cloudy, the sun shining faintly through the grey mass. Gale continues; the wind (E.S.E.) not having varied a hair for the last sixteen hours. Barometer gradually falling; ship rolling and pitching in the sea, and all things dreary-looking and uncomfortable. I am supremely disgusted with the sea and all its belongings; the fact is, I am past the age when men ought to be subjected to the hardships and discomforts of the sea. ”

“ The fact is, I am reaching an age when men long for quiet and repose. During the war my services belong to my country, and ease must not be thought of; but I trust that the end is not afar off. The enemy, from many signs, is on the point of final discomfiture. Nay, a just Providence will doubtless punish the wicked fanatics who have waged this cruel and unjust war upon us, in a way to warn and astonish the nations upon earth. ”

“ This will be a serious disaster for us if we cannot remedy it at Cape Town, for we have no tank room for more than eight days' supply, and no place to store casks except on deck, where they would interfere with the guns. And so I have borne up to run for Angra Pequena, where I expect to pick up my prize-crew that I may return to Simon's Bay to see what can be done, without further delay. I am quite knocked up with cold and fever, but sick as I may be, I can never lie by and be quiet, the demands of duty being inexorable and incessant. ”

“ Great Britain, having proclaimed a strict neutrality in the war now pending between the United States and Confederate States, is under the obligation, I respectfully suggest, not only to abstain herself, from any un-neutral conduct, but to see that all persons whatsoever within her dominions so abstain. No act of war, proximate or remote, should be tolerated in her waters by the one belligerent against the other, or by any citizen or resident against either belligerent. ”

“ They are as fine and gentlemanly a set of fellows as ever we saw; most of them young men. The ship has been so frequently described, that most people know what she is like, as we do who have seen her. We should have known her to be the Alabama if we had boarded her in the midst of the ocean, with no one to introduce us to each other. Her guns alone are worth going off to see, and everything about her speaks highly for the seamanship and discipline of the commander and his officers. She has a very large crew, fine, lithe-looking fellows, the very picture of English men-of-war's men. ”

“ Drill and exercise were now the order of the day during the hours of light, and as the sun set and the tropic night came rushing swiftly up over the yet glowing sky, chessboards and backgammon-boards were brought out, and discussions, social, political, and literary, divided the long hours of inaction with the yarn and the song, and other mild but not ineffectual distractions of life at sea. ”

“ One of the Alabama's officers writes in his private journal:—
"It seemed a fearful thing to burn such a cargo as the Brilliant had, when I thought how the Lancashire operatives would have danced for joy had they it shared amongst them. I never saw a vessel burn with such brilliancy, the flames completely enveloping the masts, hull, and rigging in a few minutes, making a sight as grand as it was appalling." ”

“ The cocoa-nut tree has climbed the mountain sides, and waves its feathery foliage from the crests of the ridges. It is food, and cordage, and light to the natives. Several delightful little valleys presented themselves, upon which, and on the adjacent steeps or the mountains, were thatched huts. Probably to the mere animal part of our nature, the life that these people lead is happier than any other; wants few and easily supplied, labour not too pressing, and the simple tastes satisfied with such pleasures as they find. ”

“ The latest entries in the diary of Captain Semmes are of an interest too great to permit us to exclude them, prior to the narration of the memorable duel which closes the history of a vessel whose renown, short as her career has been, may challenge that of any ship that has spread a sail upon the waters, and casts a lustre even upon the heroic history of the Confederate States. ”

“ Without troubling your Excellency further, however, with an argument of the question, I will content myself with stating what I believe to be the true rule of law, and it is this:—A belligerent ship of war cannot increase her armament or her crew in a neutral port, nor supply herself with ammunition; but with these exceptions she may procure whatever supply she needs.
Although it would be an easy matter for me to run to one of the British, or Danish, or Dutch Islands, I should regret to be obliged to do so, and to have to inform my Government of the reason. ”

“ After five days of hard fighting with the strong N.E. trade, blowing for the most part half a gale of wind, and with thick and dirty weather, the enemy is at length overcome, the sky clears, and the Sumter's head is turned towards Europe. And now for a time Yankee commerce was to have a respite, its relentless little enemy directing its attention exclusively towards maturing her voyage across the Atlantic. She had at this time but sixty days' water for her own crew, in addition to whom there were now the six prisoners taken from the schooner. ”

“ And all this while every mile of latitude of the last importance, as the Alabama groped her way slowly to the southward and eastward in search of the little island at which she was to take in her supplies, and which she might at any moment run past in the darkness altogether! Trying work, indeed, for the patience of men cooped up in their narrow floating prison, and longing to be at work again. ”

“ The clouds look hard and wintry. Close-reefed at nightfall.... The gale has continued all day, with a rough sea, in which the ship is rolling and tumbling about. Weather cloudy and gloomy-looking, and the wind moaning and whistling through the rigging—enough to give one the blues. These are some of the comforts of sea-going, and we have had our share of them in the Alabama.
Thursday, December 18th.—The gale continues, with dense clouds in every direction obscuring the heavens so that we get no meridian altitude. I got a glimpse of the sun at about nine minutes past noon. ”

“ Fine starlit nights and clear settled days, though very pleasant to the lover of nature, are not quite such weather as we require for running a blockade by a ship which keeps herself in plain sight of us, and which has the heels of us. But we must have patience, and bide our time. Several sail have come in and departed during the last twenty-four hours. The enemy in the offing as usual. Towards noon it began to cloud up, and we had some rain, and I had strong hopes that we should have a cloudy, dark night. ”

“ The island is a beautiful, picturesque spot. There is quite a mountain in the interior, and the higher parts of Johanna are densely wooded; the mountain-sides being in some places so steep that the tops of some trees touch the trunks and roots of others.
The inhabitants are a mixture of Arabs and negroes. They are intelligent and sprightly, and had not only heard of the American war, but said it bore heavily on them, as they were now compelled to pay a much higher price for their goods, which are mostly cotton. We have driven away, they say, all their Yankee trade. ”

“ What a history of the United States has to be written since the last event! How much of human weakness and wickedness and folly has been developed in these years! But the North will receive their reward, under the inevitable and rigorous laws of a just government of the world. ”