446 Norra Carortna Troops, 1861-65.

John Niemeyer, an old and trusted locomotive engineer on
the Atlantic Coast Line, has been reading my tales of the
blockade with much interest, he having served as one of the
engineers of that remarkable boat, the Sirene, which ran be-
tween Wilmington, Charleston and the West Indies contin-
uously for nearly two years during the war, with the regu-
larity of a mail boat in time of peace. I have repeatedly
asked him for a blockade runner’s yarn and he gave me a few
days ago the following true story of a very true man, ‘which
I shall put as nearly as possible in Mr. Niemeyer’s own words.

“T see you have been writing some stories about George C.
McDougal, who was chief of the Sirene; why he ought to
have been captain as well as chief engineer of that boat. He
wasn’t what you might call a scientific navigator, but he knew
more about the ins and outs of blockade running, most like-
ly, than any other man in the fleet. | He had served for years
before the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta railroad was
built, as chief engineer of the steamboats plying between Wil-
mington and Charleston, and he knew every land mark
ashore and every hump and hollow under the water up and
down the coast from Hatteras to St. Augustine. He could
tell the position of the ship by the revolutions of the engine
nearly as accurately as our navigating officer with his sextant,
chronometer and logarithms, and as for the bottom on a deep
sea lead he was what you might call a specialist. The little
Sirene was an enchantress sure enough. She didn’t sing any
because we had to keep her very quiet. She must have hyp-
notized the Yankees however, as they were never.able to touch
her. She was at first commanded by an Englisman who
dreaded the coast as the devil does holy water, and when he
fetched soundings was always for running off again. On one
occasion he made a bad land fall, and fearing he would get
aground by following the beach, decided to run out to sea,
but the Boss, as we called McDougal, at once protested against
such folly, which he said would surely lead to greater danger
than if we continued towards Wilmington; besides which the
ship was short of coal, and could not possibly keep steam for
more than twelve or fifteen hours longer. The Captain, who
was a deep water navigator, refused to listen to him, how-

 

Bieckape RunnINa. 447

ever, and persisted in changing the course of the ship, where-
upon McDougal quietly told him that he felt it his duty
under the circumstances to take the ship out of his hands,
and that if he persisted in thus wilfully sacrificing the prop-
erty of the owners and endangering the lives of all on board
he must take the consequences, as tlie Sirene was bound to
go to Wilmington that night and no where else. The Captain
insisted that McDougal’s proposal was contrary to all rules of
navigation, but finding that his engineer was in earnest, and
could easily command all of the men on board, having their
full confidence, he at last agreed, and following the engineer’s
suggestions and having an excellent pilot, succeeded in mak-
ing the harbor in safety. Capt. J. Pembroke Jones, who
Was a passenger aboard at once sent ashore for his brother in
command at Fort Caswell, and there was quite a jollification
in the cabin that night. Our Captain had a good deal to say
about his skill in bringing the ship into port, but he utterly
failed to mention the part his plucky engineer had
taken, and McDougal was not a man to boast of his own ex-
ploits. But I started to tell you another story about the
Sirene and McDougal. We had successfully run the block-
ade and arrived at Nassau where we immediately discharged
and reloaded. Between one and two o’clock p. m. the Sirene
got under way and crossed the bar at Nassau and headed up
the northeast channel bound for Wilmington. She was com-
manded on this occasion by Captain R., a remarkably skill-
ful navigator but without any nerve in time of danger. It
was his habit whenever he got into a tight place to leave th¢g
bridge and shut himself up in his cabin and trust to luck,
which meant McDougal, for he generally took charge of the
ship at once and with the assistance of a good man who was
chief offiger, always managed to get the boat out of diffieulty,
when R. would resume command. On this occasion the
weather was fair and the sea as smooth as a pond. While
we were tracking along Egg Island reef, which is a long, nar-
row shoal with shallow water inside, a Federal gun boat shot
out from under the eastern end of the reef and headed for us.
This was clearly contrary to International Law, being within
the limit of British jurisdiction, but it is a well known fact