428 Norra Carorttna Troops, 1861-’65.

our bows, nicely placed to be run clean over, and as we were
going about fourteen knots her chance of escape would have
been small had we been inclined to finish her. Changing the
helm, which I did myself, a couple of spokes just took us
clear. We passed so close that I could have dropped a biscuit
into the boat with ease. I heard the crash of broken oars
against our sides; not a word was spoken.

“T strongly suspect every man in that boat held his breath
till the great white avalanche of cotton, rushing by so un-
pleasantly near, had passed quite clear of her.

‘However, they seemed very soon to have recovered them-
selves, for a minute had scarcely passed before up went a
rocket, which I thought a very ungrateful proceeding on their
part. But they only did their duty, and perhaps they did
not know how nearly they had escaped being made food for
fishes. On the rocket being thrown up, a gun was fired un-
commonly close to us, but as we did not hear any shot, it may
have been only a signal to cruisers to keep a sharp look-out.

“We steered a mile or two near the coast, always edging a
little to the eastward, and then shaped our course straight
out to sea. Several guns were fired in. the pitch darkness
very near us. (I am not quite sure whether some of the
blockaders did not occasionally pepper each other.) After
an hour’s fast steaming, we felt moderately safe, and by the
morning had a good offing.

“Daylight broke with thick, hazy weather, nothing being
in sight. We went on all right until 8:30 o’clock, when the
weather cleared up, and-there was a large paddle-wheel
eruiser (that we must have passed very near to in the thick
weather) about six miles astern of us. The moment she saw
us she gave chase. After running for a quarter of an hour,
it was evident that with our heavy cargo on board, the cruiser
had the legs of us, and as there was a long day before us for
the chase, things looked badly. We moved some cotton aft
to immerse our screws well, but still the cruiser was steadily
decreasing her distance from us, when an incident of a very
curious nature favored us for a time.

“Tt is mentioned in the book of sailing directions that the
course of the Gulf Stream (in the vicinity of which we knew

 

BLockaDE RUNNING. 429

we were) is in calm weather and smooth water plainly marked
out by a ripple on its inner and outer edges. We clearly
saw, about a mile ahead of us, a remarkable ripple, which we
rightly, as it turned out, conjectured, was that referred to in
the book. As soon as we crossed it, we steered the usual
course of the current of the Gulf Stream, that here ran for
two or three miles an.hour. Seeing us alter our course, the
eruiser did the same; but she had not crossed the ripple on
the edge of the stream, and the course she was now steering
tended to keep her for some time from doing so. The result
soon made it evident that the observations in the book were
correct; for until she too crossed the ripple into the stream,
we dropped her rapidly astern, whereby we increased our dis-
tance to at least seven miles.

“Tt was now noon, from which time the enemy again be-
gan to close with us, and at 5 o’clock was not more than three
miles distant. At 6 o’clock she opened a harmless fire with
the Parrot gun in her bow, the shot falling far short of us.
At ‘sunset at 6:45, she had got so near that she managed to
send two or three shots over us, and was steadily coming up.

“Luckily, as night came on, the weather became very
cloudy and we were on the dark side of the moon, now setting
in the west, which occasionally breaking through the clouds
astern of the cruiser, showed us all her movements, while we
must have been very difficult to make out, though certainly
not more than a mile off. All this time she kept firing away,
thinking, I suppose, that she would frighten us into stopping.
If we had gone straight on, we should doubtless have been
caught, so we altered our course two points to the eastward.
After steaming a short distance we stopped quite still, blow-
ing off steam under water, not a spark or the slightest smoke
showing from the funnel; and we had the indescribable sat-
isfaction of seeing our enemy steam past us, still firing ahead
at some imaginary vessel.

“This had been a most exciting chase and a very narrow
escape; night only saved us from a New York prison. All
this hard running had made an awful hole in our coal bunk-
ers, and as it was necessary to keep a stock for a run off the
blockaded Bahama Islands, we were obliged to reduce our ex-