348 NortH Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

ficers, ships’ papers, log books, instruments for navigation
and whaling charts to the Shenandoah. After the boats left
the steamer the Confederate flag was hoisted and a gun fired.
This signal announcing the character of the warship brought
down the American flags and the seizure was immediately
made. Waddell remained some days in this harbor, where
he made friends with the native “king,” a savage.

The course of the Shenandoah was thence for many days
toward the north, and beset with violent storms. Finally
the snow-covered Kurile Islands were sighted, and 31 May the
Sea of Okhotsk was entered, under the coast of Kamschatka.
A few days later the whaling bark Abigail, of New Bedford,
was overtaken, captured, and burned. The Shenandoah con-
tinued as far north as the mouth of Chijinsk Bay, but being
forced away by the ice she stole along the coast of Siberia on
her still hunt amid frequent storms and great danger from
floating ice. On 14 June no ships having been sighted, Wad-
dell changed his course toward the Aleutian Islands, entered
Behring Sea on the next day and almost immediately fell in
with a couple of New Bedford whalers. One of them, the
William Thompson, was the largest out of. New aslend, and
valued at $60,000. These ships were burned.

The following day five vessels were sighted near an ice
floc. The Confederates hoisted the American flag, bore
down upon them, and ordered the nearest, the Milo, of New
Bedford, to produce her ship’s papers. Her captain com-
plied, but was enraged to find himself thus entrapped. He
declared the war was over. Waddell demanded documentary
evidence, which the captain could not produce. His vessel
was seized and the Shenandoah started after the companion
ships with the usual result. For several days following the
Shenandoah had things all her own way and the prizes were
frequent and valuable. She struck fleet after fleet of whal-
ing ships, only to consign them and their contents to the
flames. On 29 June, alone, five ships, valued collectively at
$160,000, were destroyed and a day or two later she reached
the climax of her career, burning within eleven hours eleven
ships, worth in the aggregate nearly $500,000.

The Shenandoah was now overcrowded with prisoners,

THE SHENANDOAH. 349

most of whom were afterwards transferred to passing ships.
Having cruised around daringly for a week or two longer,
and sighting no more ships, she turned her prow southward
again. Her depredations were at an end, for early in August
she spoke the English bark Barracouta, from San Francisco
to Liverpool, and from her received New York papers which
gave conclusive evidence of the end of the war between the
States and imparted to Commander Waddell the more per-
sonally interesting information that the United States gov-
ernment had sent six gun-boats on his track to the Arctic re-
gions to “catch the pirates and hang them on sight.”

Upon receipt of the news Commander Waddell put sixty
men to work painting a 16-foot belt of white around the ves-
sel, stowed the guns below the deck, trimmed her as a mer-
chantmen and made Liverpool. On the trip he trusted
the ship within range of the half dozen gun-boats that were
sent to capture the privateer. In answer to their salutes he
dipped the English flag and steamed away. :

On 5 November, 1865, the Shenandoah entered St. George’s
channel, having sailed 22,000 miles without seeing land. On
6 November she steamed up the Mersey, and the Confederate
flag having been hauled down Waddell sent a communication
to the English Minister of Foreign Affairs, Earl Russell,
placing the ship at the disposal of the British Government.
Through Earl Russell the vessel was transferred to the juris-
diction of the American Minister, Charles Francis Adams.
The vessel was sold to the Prince of Zanzibar for use as a
pleasure craft. On the trip home the famous privateer,
which had withstood the buffetings of a cruise of 58,000
statute miles, was caught in a cyclone and vessel, prince and
crew were lost.

Such is the record of the Shenandoah. She was actually
eruising for the Union property but eight months, and during
that time she captured and destroyed vessels to the value of
more than $1,200,000, and the Union had never been able
to direct a blow against her. She had visited every ocean
except the Antarctic, covering a distance of 58,000 statute
miles. The last gun in defense of the South was fired in
the Arctic ocean from her deck on 22 June, 1865.