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418 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

‘Schooner Royal, bound from Nassau to Bermuda.’ He or-
dered: ‘Lower your boat and come alongside.’ I said: ‘T’ll
see you, ete., etc., and then, ‘I won’t.’ Nothing further was
said, but in about twenty minutes they sent an armed boat along-
side.

“In the meantime I had our captain called and the English
ensign hoisted. Upon coming on deck the officer, quite a young
lieutenant, was shown below, and after examining the vessel’s

papers, which he found O. K., he was about to return to his
ship when I invited him to have a glass of wine with me. I

have never forgotten his answer: ‘I hadn’t oughter, but I
reckon I will.’ After a little wine he grew talkative. He asked
if I had not answered their hail, and when I replied ‘Yes,’ said
‘I thought so, it sounded like you.’ ‘Why, what do you know
about me?’ I asked. ‘Oh, I know enough to surprise you.’
‘That is something no one has ever done yet.’ ‘Would you be
surprised if I told you that your name is Usina? ‘Oh, no,
my name is Marion Robinson.’ ‘How about the man who sat on
the rail near you when I came on board? He is your man
Irvin.’ ‘You have it bad this morning,’ said 1; ‘Does wine
usually affect you that way? ‘You know that I am giving it
to you straight,’ said he. ‘Oh, no, you’re badly mixed.’ ‘Will
you think I’m mixed when I tell you that that little Frenchman
is John Sassard, your chief engineer; that red-headed fellow
over there is Nelson, your chief officer; these are all your men,
and you are going to Bermuda to take charge of a new ship?
‘Well,’ said I, ‘you certainly have it bad, you had better not
take any more wine.’ ‘Will you acknowledge I am right now ?
said he, and produced my photograph with my history written
on the back of it. I had to acknowledge it then; but I was
under the protection of Her Most Gracious Majesty, and he
had to admit his inability to take me now, though he promised
to capture me before long and boasted that he had come very
near me often before. But ‘close’ didn’t count any more then
than it does now, and he promised to treat me well if he should
ever have the chance, and so we parted good friends.

“T afterwards found out that his ship had called at Nassau
shortly after our leaving there, and the consul had given him
my picture and the information which he sprung on me. I
learned then that the photographers there had been making
quite a nice thing selling the pictures of blockade runners to
the United States authorities, together with what information

Blockade Running 419

they could gather about the originals; and the result was that,
with but one exception (Captain Coxetter, who was too wise to
have his picture taken), the Yankees had all our pictures, which
did then, and perhaps do still, adorn the rogues’ gallery in
Ludlow Street Jail, New York City. Thus many a poor fellow
who thought he was successfully passing himself off as an Eng-
lishman was identified and sent to Lafayette or Warren, two
Winter resorts that are not too pleasantly remembered by some
of my old shipmates.

“The enemy’s ships were provided with powerful calcium
searchlights, which, if a blockade runner was in reach, would
light her up about as well as an electric light would at the
present time, and make her a perfect target for the enemy’s fire.
I have several times been just far enough to be out of reach of
the light and by circling around it dodged them in the darkness.
Another plan they adopted was to throw rockets over the ship
occasionally, showing to all the vessels of the fleet the course
taken by the fugitive. I think one of the worst frights I had
during the war was the landing of a rocket on deck close to
where I was standing. While we could not circumvent their
searchlights, I succeeded in making the rocket scheme useless
by providing myself with a quantity of them, firing back at
them whenever they fired at us, or firing them in every direction,
making it impossible to tell in which direction the chased ship
was going.

“Among the vessels blockading Wilmington in 1864 was the
little side-wheel steamer Nansemond, after the war a revenue
cutter, and stationed at this place. She had a rifle gun mounted
at each end, and being quite fast made several valuable captures.
I remember that among the craft captured by her was the
steamer Hope, Capt. William Hammer, of Charleston, with
1,800 bales of cotton and more men on board the Hope than
there were on board the Nansemond, but, unfortunately, while
the Hope was a stronger and larger ship and had more men, she
was not allowed to defend herself and had to submit to the
inevitable.

“One afternoon, while in command of the Atalanta and ap-
proaching Wilmington, I was sighted by the V ansemond and
was being chased away from my port. Although I had the
faster vessel, I realized that if the chase continued much longer
I would be driven so far from my destination that I would not
be able to get back that night, and so determined that, although