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442 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

an entirely new hand and nearly all the crew were green at the
work; moreover, the Wilmington pilot was quite unknown to
me, and I could see from the outset that he was very nervous
and wanting in confidence. What would I not have given for
our trusty pilot, Tom Burruss! However, we had to make the
best of it, as, owing to the demand, the supply of competent
pilots was not nearly sufficient, and towards the close of the
blockade the so-called pilots were no more than boatmen or men

who had been trading in and out of Wilmington or Charleston
In coasters. Notwithstanding my fears, all went well on the

way across, and the Night Hawk proved to be everything that
could be desired in speed and seaworthiness.

“We had sighted unusually few craft, and nothing eventful
occurred until the third night. Soon after midnight we found
ourselves uncomfortably near a large vessel. It was evident that
we had been seen, as we heard them beating to quarters, and we
were hailed. We promptly sheered off and went full speed
ahead, greeted by a broadside which went across our stern.

“When we arrived within striking distance of Wilmington
Bar, the pilot was anxious to go in by Smith’s Inlet, but as he
acknowledged that he knew very little about it, I concluded it
was better to keep to the New Inlet passage, where, at all events
we should have the advantage of our good friend Lamb to fro-
tect us; and I felt that as I myself knew the place so well, this
was the safest course to pursue. We were comparatively well
through the fleet, although heavily fired at, and arrived near to
the bar, passing close by two Northern launches, which were
lying almost upon it. Unfortunately, it was dead low water
and although I pressed our pilot to give our boat a turn around,
keeping under way, and to wait a while until the tide made he
was so demoralized by the firing we had gone through and the
nearness of the launches, which were constantly throwing up
rockets, that he insisted upon putting her at the bar and, as I
feared, we grounded on it forward, and with the strong flood
tide quickly broached-to, broadside on to the northern breakers.
We kept our engines going for some time, but to no purpose, as

we found we were only being forced by the tide more on to the
breakers. Therefore, we stopped, and all at once found our
friends, the two launches, close aboard : they had discovered we
were ashore, and had made up their minds to attack us,

“At once all was in confusion; the pilot and signalman rushed
to the dinghy, lowered it, and made good their escape; the

Blockade Running 443

captain lost his head and disappeared; and the crews of the |
launches, after firing several volleys, one of which slightly
wounded me, rowed in to board us on each sponson. Just at
this moment, I suddenly recollected that our private dispatches,
which ought to have been thrown overboard, were still in the
starboard lifeboat. I rushed to it, but found the lanyard to
which the sinking weight was attached was foul of one of the

thwarts; I tugged and tugged, but to no purpose, so I sung out
for a knife, which was handed to me by a fireman, and I cut the
line and pitched it overboard as the Northerners jumped on
board. Eighteen months afterwards that fireman accosted me

in the Liverpool streets, saying, ‘Mr. Taylor, do you remember
my lending you a knife? ‘Of course I do,’ I replied, giving

him a tip, at which he was mightily pleased. Poor fellow! he

had been thirteen months in a Northern prison.
‘When the Northerners jumped on board they were terribly

excited. I don’t know whether they expected resistance or not,
but they acted more like maniacs than sane men, firing their
revolvers and cutting right and left with their cutlasses. I
stood in front of the men on the poop and said that we surren-
dered, but all the reply I received from the lieutenant command-
ing was, ‘Oh, you surrender, do you? * * eres accompanied
by a string of the choicest Yankee oaths and sundry reflections
upon my parentage; whereupon he fired his revolver twice point-
blank at me not two yards distant. It was a miracle he did not
kill me, as I heard the bullets whiz past my head. This aroused
my wrath, and I expostulated in the strongest terms upon his
firing upon unarmed men. He then cooled down, giving me
into the charge of two of his men, one of whom speedily pos-
sessed himself of my binoculars. Fortunately, as I had no
guard to my watch, they didn’t discover it, and I have it still.
“Finding they could not get the ship off, and afraid, I pre-
sume, of Lamb and his men coming to our rescue, the Federals
Commenced putting the captain (who had been discovered be-
hind a boat !) and the crew into the boats; they then set the ship
on fire fore and aft, and she soon began to blaze merrily. At
this moment one of our firemen, an Irishmen, sang out, ‘Be-
gorra, we shall all be in the air in a minute, the ship is full of
gunpowder!’ No sooner did the Northern sailors hear this than
a panic seized them, and they rushed to their boats, threatening
to leave their officers behind if they did not come along. ‘The
men who were holding me dropped me like a hot potato, and to