448 Norru Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

that the Federal blockading and cruising ieets had positive
orders after the second year of the war to seize all suspicious
vessels no matter where found, and if a foreign government
set up a reasonable claim, to pay it without demur ; the United
States government having determined that it was better to pay
for such vessels than to permit them to reach the Confederacy.
We knew as well as they did that we were within the domain
of a British province. We also knew that that would not
deter the Yankee from picking us up if there was no British
man of war in sight, and there was nothing for us to do under
the circumstances but "bout ship and run back for Nassau,
which in our position appeared to be an impossibility. The
little Sirene was handicapped by a heavy cargo and the gun
boat gained on us rapidly. As soon as it became evident
that we could not fetch Nassau, our pursuer opened fire
upon us, under which our discomfited Captain left the bridge
and took shelter in the cabin, and the first assistant engineer,
Barbot, at once sung out to me, “Niemeyer, where’s the Boss ?”’
“In his room asleep,” said I. “Rout him out then quickly
and tell him the Yankee is after, us, is gaining rapidly and
has the range of us, and the Captain has left the deck.” *I
immediately ran to the Chief’s room and repeated Barbot’s
order, but before I could finish it the Boss was out on deck in
his stocking feet, took a quick look over the stern at the gun
boat, another over the port side at the rocky and treacherous
bottom which was clearly visible through the transparent wa-
ter, then with half a dozen jumps he was on the bridge. I
followed to see the outeome. He immediately hustled the
Bahama pilot onto the paddle box with the order “into the
current immediately.” The pilot saw the danger of such a
movement, which meant that the ship must run inside the
reef and take the chances of getting out. He also saw that
it was the only opportunity of escape, and he lost no time in
following his instructions. The Boss then cried to Mr. Hab-
nicht, our chief officer, who was a splendid seaman : “Jump to
the wheel, Mr. Habnicht, this is no child’s play; we must
make the most of it.” I then walked over to McDougal and
touched him on the shoulder and pointed to a shell which was
just bursting over us. He said “Don’t bother about shells,

BrockapE RunnIna@. 449

ile is 4 para aoe yee onP ove rocks it will
the ugly rocks under the clear blue Be wie ae ak
rushing at full speed and thought os a ere ible
but of the other dangers sala e Wh cyt
saw us go in among the rocks ie te é are a ge
having put about the ship went b k ; he patie ete
went below on duty pe soon ns cae ener ina
“Stand by your engines” these t ‘leer Abe a Susi
Somes a wee et ee e interva s Slow down
wo times back.” The splash and rattle of chains
irr pien a sen
ying prettiest harbor I ever saw,
which probably never embraced a ship of half our size.
Our chief officer immediately sent a man aloft with the best
glass in the ship with orders not to lose sight of the gunboat
then ordered supper ‘‘And be quick about it.” MeDougal
said to his first assistant Barbot “Get your fires in good trim
with plenty of coarse coal on the fire-room plates.” “We
have got to race for it to-night” said he. Shortly afterwards
the mate went: aloft to relieve the man in the cross trees and
saw that the cruiser was laying off and on at the end of the
reef, waiting to pick us up in the morning, well knowing that
he had us ina trap. The Boss soon saw that our only chance
was in getting out of shoal water before darkness. "The sun
was in the meantime getting low. Orders were given to
weigh anchor and the ship proceeded very slowly towards
the outlet in order not to excite our pursuer’s suspicion, both
ships having each other’s bearings and watching to see if
either moved. As soon as we got outside of the shoal we
kept still again until the sun went down. In two hours the
moon began to show above the horizon, and to our great joy
we had our pursuer closely defined under the moon’s rays
while we were in comparative darkness. Now orders were
given for full speed across the channel for Abaco, and you
may be sure that Barbot got all out of the engine that was
possible. We had been warned the day before by a passing
schooner that two cruisers were waiting near Abaco so that
we had one behind us and two before us before we could reach

29