——=

ns ee eee ae ete

~ vs " — oe a ee 2%. - = = .
= RR a SATS aE -
oo vem =

FE A ORT HN me nF em ear —

oo

ee

LN LLL TT ACL LE CT OO TI A EN Ee

eat ne bine RP ot CTC a A TI

oe _ —_ —_s
2 LED ALOE A ALLEL ALLE LALA EE SE A A OER AE NM A pm a —_

400 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

“Some months afterwards a very fine blockade runner called
the Don, under command of Captain Roberts (whose real name
was Hobart, a son of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and a post
captain in the British Navy, who had obtained leave of absence
in order to try his skill at blockade running), was brought suc-
cessfully to Wilmington by Pilot St. George, who was there
taken sick, and I was requested to assume his place.

“On my return to Wilmington in the Don, I relinquished
this vessel to her former pilot, St. George, and made a contract
with the agent in Wilmington of a firm which owned a number
of blockade runners—a notable one being the Hansa—to pilot
any vessels which he might designate and be subject to his
orders at any moment, the term of engagement being three
months.

“Tmmediately afterwards, I was ordered to proceed to Nassau
in the blockade runner Fanny (formerly the Orion), and report
to Captain Watters, of the blockade runner Annie, for duty on
that ship. :

“T remember that we left in the Fanny on Saturday night
and arrived in Nassau before daylight on Tuesday morning,
where I found the Annie, fully loaded and ready for sea, wait-
ing for me. We accordingly left about 4 o’clock that afternoon
and arrived without incident inside the Cape Fear Bar on

the Friday night following.
“T made a second voyage through the blockade in the Anme,

passing within a cable-length of two of the Federal fleet that
failed to observe us.

“We again loaded the Annie in Nassau and cleared for
Wilmington, but fell in with a hurricane shortly afterwards,
and were obliged to heave to for about forty hours, and so lost
our reckoning. Failing to get observations for three days, we
waited until the gale subsided, and then anchored the ship in
smooth water, by a kedge, until the captain succeeded in getting
an observation of the North Star, by which he worked out his
position. We then shaped our course straight for the blockade
fleet off Fort Fisher.

“At that time, and subsequently, it was the custom for the
flagship of the blockading squadron to carry a large light, and
this, being the only one visible, often served the purpose of
guiding the blockade runners until they could get the bearings

of the Mound Light. On this particular night of May 6, 1864,
we came very near running afoul of the Confederate iron-clad

 

 

      
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
      
    
    
   
   
 
    
     
     
    
      
       
   
    
      
       
    
    
     
   
    
    
     
    
      
    
      
    
    
    
    
     
     

Blockade Running 401

ram Raleigh outside of the bar, but, supposing her to be one of
the blockaders, got out of her way as quickly as possible.

“My term of three months’ service having expired, I was
proceeding in my skiff from Craig’s Landing to Wilmington
when I was overtaken by a very swift blockade runner, with
two rakish funnels, a perfect model of its kind, called the
Lynx, and, having been given a towline, climbed aboard and
found, to my great surprise and delight, that the ship was com-
manded by my old friend, Captain Reed, who immediately re-
quested that I would arrange to go with him, as his engagement
of a pilot was only for the voyage inward.

“To this I consented on condition that General Whiting
would approve it, and I received a few days afterwards a tele-
gram to go on board the Lynx at Fort Fisher. I was in a
hurricane on this ship in which she fared badly, her paddle-
boxes, sponsons, and bridge-deck being partly washed away;
but we at last limped into Bermuda and, after repairing dam-
ages, proceeded again to Wilmington.

“The longest chase of which I was a witness during the war
occurred while I was on the Lynx, which was chased for fifteen
hours by that very fast cruiser, Fort Jackson. The Fort Jack-
son's log and official report subsequently showed that she was
making sixteen knots an hour, which at that time was considered
phenomenal speed (the average blockade runner seldom ex-
ceeding fourteen knots an hour), and on this occasion I remem-
ber that the safety-valves of the Lyna were weighted down by
the iron tops of the coal bunkers, which of course imperiled the
life of every one on board, but increased the speed of the Lyna
to more than sixteen knots an hour and enabled her ultimately
to escape.

“After making two round passages in the Lynx and running
the blockade four times in this vessel, several times under fire,
I joined at Wilmington the Confederate steamer Lilian under
the following peculiar circumstances:

“Quite a number of the Wilmington pilots had been cap-
tured by the enemy, and the force available for ships belonging
to the Confederate Government waiting in Bermuda and Nas-
Sau was in consequence greatly reduced. The regular pilot of
the Lilian was Thomas Grissom, and I was one of four extra
pilots (the three others being Joseph Thompson, James Bell,
and Charles Craig), who were ordered by General Whiting to
proceed to Bermuda and take charge of certain ships to be

26