Cruise And Captures Of The Alabama Part 10

Meanwhile the coaling of the Alabama was completed. Some of the officers were given a banquet by admiring friends in the town on Sat.u.r.day night, and the party broke up with a promise to meet again in a similar way to celebrate the victory which none seemed to doubt would soon be theirs.

Sunday morning came. The weather was fine, the air slightly hazy and a light westerly breeze rippled the harbor. Sunday was esteemed the Alabama's lucky day. On Sunday Captain Semmes had a.s.sumed the command of her and the Confederate ensign first appeared at her mast head. On Sunday many of her most important captures had been made. On Sunday she halted the mighty Ariel, and on Sunday she sunk the Hatteras. It was inevitable that there should grow up between decks a belief that any important enterprise begun on Sunday had the best chance of success. As a factor in the coming contest, a feeling in the minds of the men who were to do the fighting that a lucky day had been pitched upon for the battle, was not to be despised. And so on Sunday, June 19th, 1864, the Alabama sallied forth to meet the Kearsarge. The French iron clad frigate Couronne accompanied her to the three-mile limit in order to make sure that no fighting should take place in French waters. A private English steam yacht, the Deerhound, followed in the wake of the Couronne and took a position affording a good view of the battle, and several French pilot boats did likewise. The taller buildings, the rigging of vessels, the fortifications, and the heights above the town, were lined with people, many of whom had come from the interior and even from Paris to view the extraordinary spectacle. It is said that more than fifteen thousand people had gathered for this purpose. The great majority sympathised with the Alabama, but there was quite a contingent of Union adherents, among whom were the captains of the Tyc.o.o.n and the Rockingham, with their families and crews, eager that vengeance at last might fall upon the destroyer.

CHAPTER XX.

BATTLE WITH THE KEARSARGE.

On board the Kearsarge the long wait had bred doubts of the martial temper of Captain Semmes, and aside from the preparations already made affairs had largely dropped back into the ordinary routine. Soon after ten o'clock the officer of the deck reported a steamer approaching from the city, but this was a frequent occurrence, and no attention was paid to the announcement.

The bell was tolling for religious services when loud shouts apprised the crew that the long-looked-for Alabama was in sight. Captain Winslow hastily laid aside his prayer book and seized his trumpet. The fires were piled high with coal and the prow was turned straight out to sea. The fight must be to the death, and the vanquished was not to be permitted to crawl within the protection of the marine league. Moreover, the French government had expressed a desire that the battle should take place at least six or seven miles from the coast. Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five minutes pa.s.sed. The Alabama kept straight on, and the Kearsarge continued her apparent flight.

Finally, at 10:50, when six or seven miles from sh.o.r.e, the Kearsarge wheeled and bore down upon her adversary. At a distance of a little over a mile the Alabama began the fight with her Blakely rifle, and at 10:57 she opened fire with her entire starboard broadside, which cut some of the Kearsarge's rigging but did no material damage. The latter crowded on all steam to get within closer range, but in two minutes a second broadside came hurtling about her. This was quickly followed by a third, and then, deeming the danger from a raking fire too great longer to allow the s.h.i.+p to present her bow to the enemy, Captain Winslow directed his vessel sheared, and fired his starboard battery. He then made an attempt to run under the Alabama's stern, which she frustrated by shearing, and thus the two s.h.i.+ps were forced into a circular track round a common center, and the battle went on for an hour, the distance between them varying from a half to a quarter of a mile. During that time the vessels described seven complete circles.

At 11:15 a sixty-eight pounder sh.e.l.l came through the bulwarks of the Kearsarge, exploding on the quarter deck and badly wounding three of the crew of the after pivot gun. Two shots entered the ports of the thirty-two pounders, but injured no one. A sh.e.l.l exploded in the hammock nettings and set fire to the s.h.i.+p, but those detailed for fire service extinguished it in a short time, and so thorough was the discipline that the cannonade was not even interrupted.

A hundred-pounder sh.e.l.l from the Alabama's Blakely pivot gun entered near the stern and lodged in the stern-post. The vessel trembled from bowsprit to rudder at the shock. The sh.e.l.l failed to explode, however. Had it done so, the effect must have been serious and might have changed the result of the battle. A thirty-two pounder sh.e.l.l entered forward and lodged under the forward pivot gun, tilting it out of range, but did not explode. A rifle sh.e.l.l struck the smoke stack, broke through, and exploded inside, tearing a ragged hole three feet in diameter Only two of the boats escaped damage.

As the battle progressed, it became evident that the terrible pounding of the two eleven-inch Dahlgrens was having a disastrous effect on the Alabama. The Kearsarge gunners had been instructed to aim the heavy guns somewhat below rather than above the water line, and leave the deck fighting to the lighter weapons. As the awful missiles opened great gaps in the enemy's side or bored her through and through, the deck of the Kearsarge rang with cheers. A seaman named William Gowin, with a badly shattered leg, dragged himself to the forward hatch, refusing to permit his comrades to leave their gun in order to a.s.sist him. Here he fainted, but reviving after being lowered to the care of the surgeon, waved his hand and joined feebly in the cheers which reached him from the deck.

"It is all right," he told the surgeon; "I am satisfied, for we are whipping the Alabama."

The situation on the Alabama was indeed getting serious. It is evident that Captain Semmes entered the fight expecting to win. On leaving the harbor the crew were called aft, and, mounting a gun carriage, he addressed them as follows:

Officers and seamen of the Alabama: You have at length another opportunity of meeting the enemy--the first that has been presented to you since you sunk the Hatteras. In the meantime you have been all over the world, and it is not too much to say that you have destroyed and driven for protection under neutral flags one-half of the enemy's commerce, which, at the beginning of the war, covered every sea. This is an achievement of which you may well be proud; and a grateful country will not be unmindful of it. The name of your s.h.i.+p 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, who bids defiance to her enemies, whenever and wherever found. Show the world that you know how to uphold it. Go to your quarters.

As before stated, the "Persuader" began to speak at long range-more than a mile. But it was no peaceful merchantman that she had now to accost; no fleeing Ariel, vomiting black smoke in a vain effort to get beyond her range--no white winged Starlight or Sea Bride, piling sail on sail to reach the shelter of a neutral harbor. The Kearsarge only raced toward her with still greater speed. At the third summons the Kearsarge yawed gracefully to port, and out of those frowning Dahlgrens blazed her answer.

The Alabama staggered at the blow, and her creaking yards shook like branches in a tornado. Gla.s.s in hand, Captain Semmes stood upon the horseblack abreast the mizzen mast.

"Try solid shot," he shouted; "our sh.e.l.l strike her side and fall into the water."

A little later sh.e.l.ls were tried again, and then shot and sh.e.l.l were alternated during the remainder of the battle. But no plan seemed to check the awful regularity of the Kearsarge's after pivot gun. Captain Semmes offered a reward for the silencing of this gun, and at one time his entire battery was turned upon it, but although three of its men were wounded as stated, its fire was not interrupted.

"What is the matter with the Blakely gun?" was asked; "we don't seem to be doing her any harm."

At one time the after pivot gun of the Alabama, commanded by Lieutenant Wilson, had been run out to be fired, when a sh.e.l.l came through the port, mowing down the men and piling up a gastly ma.s.s of human flesh. One of the thirty-two pounders had to be abandoned in order to fill up the crew of the gun. The deck was red with blood, and much effort was necessarily expended in getting the wounded below.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "OUT OF THOSE FROWNING DAHLGRENS BLAZED HER ANSWER."]

Water rushed into the Alabama through gaping holes in her sides, and she was visibly lower in the water. There was no concealing the fact that the vessel could not float any great length of time. Captain Semmes made one last attempt to reach the coast--or at least that saving marine league, whose shelter he had denied to so many of his victims. As the vessels were making their seventh circle the foretrysail and two jibs were ordered set.

The seaman who executed the order was struck while on the jib boom by a sh.e.l.l or solid shot and disembowelled. Nevertheless, he succeeded in struggling to the spar deck, and ran shrieking to the port gangway, where he fell dead. The guns were pivoted to port, and the battle recommenced, with the Alabama's head turned toward the sh.o.r.e.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Chart of Battle off Cherbourg._]

The effort was a vain one. Again the sh.e.l.ls plowed through the Alabama's hull, and the chief engineer came on deck to say that the water had put out his fires. Lieutenant Kell ran below and soon satisfied himself that the vessel could not float ten minutes. The flag was ordered hauled down and a white flag displayed over the stern. But the gunners were unable to realize that they were whipped. Semmes and Kell were immediately surrounded by excited seamen protesting against surrender. Even a statement of the condition of things below decks failed to convince all of them of the futility of further fighting. It is said that two of the junior officers, swearing that they would never surrender, rushed to the two port guns and reopened fire on the Kearsarge. At this point there is a flat contradiction in the statements of eye witnesses. Lieutenant Kell denies that there was any firing of the Alabama's guns after the colors had been hauled down, and that her discipline would not have permitted it.

Semmes and Kell both aver that the Kearsarge fired five shots into them after their flag had been hauled down.

When the firing had ceased Master's Mate Fullam was sent to the Kearsarge with a boat's crew and a few of the wounded in the dingey (the only boat entirely unharmed) to say that the Alabama was sinking and to ask for a.s.sistance in transferring the wounded. He told Captain Winslow that Captain Semmes had surrendered. But during the interval the Alabama was rapidly filling, and the wounded and boys who could not swim were hastily placed in two of the quarter boats, which were only partially injured, and sent to the Kearsarge in command of F. L. Galt, surgeon of the Alabama, and at that time also acting as paymaster.

The order was then given for every man to jump overboard with a spar and save himself as best he could. The sea was quite smooth, and the active young officers and men found no difficulty in keeping afloat. Captain Semmes had on a life preserver, and Lieutenant Kell supported himself on a grating. a.s.sistant Surgeon Llewelyn, an Englishman, had tied some empty sh.e.l.l boxes around his waist, and although these prevented his body from sinking, he was unable to keep his head above water, never having learned to swim. One of the men swam to him a little later and found him dead.

The Alabama settled at the stern. The water entering the berth deck ports forced the air upward, and the huge hulk sighed like a living creature hunted to its death. The shattered mainmast broke and fell. The great guns and everything movable came thundering aft, increasing the weight at the stern, and, throwing her bow high in the air, she made her final plunge.

The end of the jib boom was the last to disappear beneath the waters, and the career of the famous cruiser was ended forever.

The Deerhound having approached at the close of the battle, Captain Winslow hailed her and requested her owner, Mr. John Lancaster, to run down and a.s.sist in saving the survivors, which he hastened to do. Steaming in among the men struggling in the water, the boats of the Deerhound were dispatched to their a.s.sistance, and ropes were also thrown to them from the decks. Master's Mate Fullam asked permission of Captain Winslow to take his boat and a.s.sist in the rescue, which was granted. Two French pilot boats also appeared on the scene and a.s.sisted in the work. One of these pilot boats took the men saved by it on board the Kearsarge, but the other, having rescued Second Lieutenant Armstrong and a number of seamen, went ash.o.r.e. Those taken to the Kearsarge, including the wounded, numbered seventy, among whom were several subordinate officers and Third Lieutenant Joseph D. Wilson. Captain Semmes had been slightly wounded in the arm and was pulled into one of the Deerhound's boats in a thoroughly exhausted condition. Lieutenant Kell was rescued by the same boat. Fifth Lieutenant Sinclair and a sailor, having been picked up by one of the Kearsarge's boats, quietly dropped overboard and reached one of the Deerhound's boats in safety. The Deerhound, having picked up about forty officers and men, steamed rapidly away and landed them on the coast of England at Southampton.

CHAPTER XXI.

CONCLUSION.

Although the deal covering of the chain armor on the Kearsarge was ripped off in many places and some of the links themselves broken, a close inspection showed that no shot which struck them would have been likely to reach a vital part, had they been absent. The only really dangerous shot which reached the Kearsarge was the sh.e.l.l in the stern-post. Captain Semmes rails at his opponent for adopting unusual methods for the safety of his vessel. He says:

Notwithstanding my enemy went out chivalrously armored to encounter a s.h.i.+p whose wooden sides were entirely without protection, I should have beaten him in the first thirty minutes of the engagement, but for the defect of my ammunition, which had been two years on board, and become much deteriorated by cruising in a variety of climates. I had directed my men to fire low, telling them that it was better to fire too low than too high, as the ricochet in the former case--the water being smooth--would remedy the defect of their aim, whereas it was of no importance to cripple the masts and spars of a steamer. By Captain Winslow's own account, the Kearsarge was struck twenty-eight times; but his s.h.i.+p being armored, of course my shot and sh.e.l.l, except in so far as fragments of the latter may have damaged his spars and rigging, fell harmless into the sea. The Alabama was not mortally wounded, as the reader has seen, until after the Kearsarge had been firing at her an hour and ten minutes. In the meantime, in spite of the armor of the Kearsarge, I had mortally wounded that s.h.i.+p in the first thirty minutes of the engagement. I say "mortally wounded her," because the wound would have proved mortal, but for the defect of my ammunition above spoken of. I lodged a rifled percussion sh.e.l.l near her stern post--where there were no chains--which failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had performed its duty, and exploded the sh.e.l.l, I should have been called upon to save Captain Winslow's crew from drowning, instead of his being called upon to save mine. On so slight an incident--the defect of a percussion cap--did the battle hinge. The enemy were very proud of this sh.e.l.l. It was the only trophy they ever got of the Alabama! We fought her until she would no longer swim, and then we gave her to the waves. This sh.e.l.l, thus imbedded in the hull of the s.h.i.+p, was carefully cut out along with some of the timber, and sent to the Navy Department in Was.h.i.+ngton, to be exhibited to admiring Yankees. It should call up the blush of shame to the cheek of every northern man who looks upon it. It should remind him of his s.h.i.+p going into action with concealed armor; it should remind him that his s.h.i.+p fired into a beaten antagonist five times, after her colors had been struck and when she was sinking; and it should remind him of the drowning of helpless men, struggling in the water for their lives! Perhaps this latter spectacle was something for a Yankee to gloat upon. The Alabama had been a scourge and a terror to them for two years. She had seized their property! Yankee property! Curse upon the "pirates,"

let them drown!

There is scarcely a doubt that Captain Semmes owed his life to the forbearance of Captain Winslow. Had he been captured during the heat of the war, a military court would doubtless have ordered his execution. The commander of the Kearsarge was several times warned by his officers that Semmes and many of his people were on board the Deerhound and likely to escape, but he said the yacht was "simply coming round," and took no steps to prevent her departure.[3]

At 3:10 p. m. the Kearsarge again dropped anchor in Cherbourg harbor. The wounded of both vessels were transferred to the French Marine hospital, where the brave seaman, William Gowin, died. The prisoners, with the exception of four officers, were paroled and sent on sh.o.r.e before sunset, a proceeding which Secretary Welles promptly disavowed, as he was resolved to commit no act which could be construed into an acknowledgement that the Alabama was a regular vessel of war. Lieutenant Wilson was, however, released on parole a few weeks later.

The news of the destruction of the Alabama was received with the greatest demonstrations of delight throughout the North and among her friends abroad. Captain Semmes was roundly denounced for making his escape after his vessel had been surrendered. Mr. John Lancaster was likewise a.s.sailed for his part in the affair, and stories told by the prisoners to the effect that the Deerhound had been acting as a sort of tender to the Alabama were readily believed in the United States. Other preposterous inventions, one of which a.s.sumes to describe a visit of Captain Semmes to the Kearsarge in disguise before the battle, have not even yet ceased to circulate. The ready pen of Captain Semmes and those of his journalistic friends in England were busily impaling Captain Winslow for two offenses: First, he was guilty of armoring his s.h.i.+p and concealing the fact that he had done so; and, secondly, he had fired upon the Alabama after her colors had been struck.

On the first point it may be said that the existence of the chain armor on the Kearsarge was pretty well known in ports where she had touched, and it would be strange indeed if Captain Semmes should have allowed this fact to escape his notice. Moreover, we have the direct statement of Lieutenant Sinclair, of the Alabama, that Semmes knew all about the chain armor before the battle.[4]

As to the second point, it was stated by prisoners from the Alabama that the unauthorized firing by junior officers of the Alabama after her flag had been hauled down had provoked the fire complained of. Lieutenant Sinclair admits the clamorous protests of the gunners against surrender.

Taken with the positive testimony of the officers of the Kearsarge that such firing actually took place, these statements would appear to be tolerably conclusive.

Notwithstanding the loss of his s.h.i.+p, Captain Semmes was treated as a hero. He was petted and feted by the London clubs, and the Junior United Service Club presented him with a magnificent sword, artistically engraved with naval and Confederate symbols, to take the place of the sword which he had cast into the sea. Reports flew broadcast that he would very soon be in command of a larger and more powerful "Alabama." English youths and school boys wrote to him by the score, imploring permission to serve under him in his new s.h.i.+p. But the Confederate government took a different view of the matter. Moreover Captain Semmes' health had been impaired by his three years of arduous service. Although at this time the Confederates had strong hopes of getting to sea one or more iron clads, Semmes was not named for the command, and received instructions to return to the southern states.

Not caring to take the chances of running the blockade, which had by this time become well nigh impenetrable, Captain Semmes took pa.s.sage for Havana and thence to the mouth of the Rio Grande, from which point he made his way overland through Texas and Louisiana, and arrived in Richmond in January, 1865. Here, in consideration of his services to the Confederate cause, he was raised to the rank of rear admiral and ordered to take command of the James River fleet. When General Lee evacuated Richmond Admiral Semmes set fire to his fleet, seized a railroad train, and transferred his command to Danville. His forces became a part of the army of General Joseph E. Johnston, and were paroled with the rest when that army surrendered to General Sherman.

December 15th, 1865, Semmes was arrested at his home in Mobile, Alabama, and taken to Was.h.i.+ngton, where he was confined for several months, while the propriety of trying him by court martial was undergoing consideration.

No name connected with the Rebellion was more thoroughly detested along the seaboard than that of Raphael Semmes. He was accused of cruelty to his prisoners, and many believed that he often sunk vessels with all on board.

His conduct at Cherbourg was considered to be contrary to the rules of war, first in the alleged firing after the vessel had been surrendered, and secondly in escaping and throwing his sword into the sea. Mr. John A.

Bolles, the solicitor general, made careful investigation of the charges on behalf of the United States government, and came to the conclusion that prosecution would not be warranted in time of peace, especially considering the fact that greater offenders were escaping prosecution.

Captain Semmes' cruelty to prisoners seems to have consisted chiefly of confining many of them in irons, an occasional display of his fiery temper, and certain outbursts of profanity. What the prisoners complained of most was the burning of their s.h.i.+ps. But all southern ports being closed by the blockade, this is manifestly the only disposition he could make of them. Escaping after surrendering his s.h.i.+p was doubtless contrary to the usages of war, but considering the fact that he was likely to be treated as a pirate, rather than as a prisoner of war, he could hardly be expected to act differently.

The question of the liability of the English government for the escape of the Alabama, the Florida, the Shenandoah, the Sallie, the Boston, and six other vessels which were converted into Confederate war vessels, was referred to a Tribunal of Arbitration, which a.s.sembled at Geneva, Switzerland, December 15th, 1871. One member of the Tribunal was appointed by the president of the United States, one by the queen of England, and one each by the king of Italy, the president of Switzerland, and the emperor of Brazil. This court gave judgment against Great Britain for the value of all the s.h.i.+ps and cargoes destroyed by the five vessels named, amounting in all with interest to $15,500,000. The losses inflicted by the Alabama, according to claims presented by the losers amounted to $6,547,609.86.