Part 5

"In the meantime, I commenced to lighten the vessel by throwing overboard about 20 tons of coal. At high water, about 2 p.m. of the 2d, I commenced tugging at her again, when, after some time, the current sweeping me close to the shoal to leeward, the _Sassacus_ struck twice lightly. I cut the hawser and steamed up to a new position and anchored. During this trial, the U.S.S. _Florida_, Commander Crosby, came in and anchored, with offers of assistance to us. During this trial the wind blew fresh from the southward and westward in heavy flaws, which was the principal cause of my failure to get her off. I then steamed up to a new position to try her again. On the 3d, while getting on board our hawsers to the prize, with the assistance of the boats of the _Florida_, my cable suddenly parted and I was forced to steam out to keep from fouling the _Florida_, which was anchored near, and in so doing parted the hauling lines of the hawsers, which were being hauled in by the _Florida's_ men on board the prize.

"During this last operation the enemy appeared and opened fire with musketry upon the _Sassacus_ and the boats coming from the prize. Both vessels promptly opened fire and the enemy were driven off.

"I would here observe that the cable of this vessel parted unduly, without having been strained by any swell or heavy wind, thus losing the anchor and about five fathoms of cable. We were anchored in two and three-quarter fathoms water; the cable was undoubtedly bad.

"Upon consultation with Commander Crosby we decided that it was impossible to get the steamer off, and that we must destroy her. Accordingly, I gave the signal to the men on board of her to set fire to her thoroughly and return aboard, which was done. Both vessels then opened fire upon the steamer, and she was riddled at about the water line with raking shots from the _Sassacus_. No attempt was made to save her cargo, as I deemed it impracticable to do so. Not one-half of her cargo had been thrown overboard and the rest, which I deemed very valuable merchandise, was consumed with the vessel. Valuable time would have been lost in the effort, and to pillage her would have demoralized my men for healthy action in some future similar service. Having effected this duty, I put to sea at about eight o'clock of the evening of the 3d.

"I transmit herewith an appraisement of value of the steamer and cargo, made by a board ordered upon that service.

"I have the honor to be, Sir, "Very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, "F.A. Roe, "_Lieutenant Commander_.

"Acting Rear Admiral S.P. Lee, "_Comdg. North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Hampton Roads_."

The "General Beauregard."

Of the steamer _General Beauregard_ I have but little information, although I remember her as a valuable ship. The _Richmond Whig_ of December 16, 1863, states that according to the _Wilmington Journal_ this steamer was chased ashore by the Federal blockaders on the night of the 11th instant some distance above Fort Fisher, near Battery Gatlin, and that she had been set on fire.

Captain Ridgely of the Federal cruiser _Shenandoah_ (which chased my ship the _Lilian_ for five hours later) reported to Admiral S.P. Lee, December 16, 1863, that on the evening of the 11th of December, 1863, between seven and eight o'clock, the cruiser _Howquah_ saw the _General Beauregard_ coming down the beach heading for Cape Fear or New Inlet. He gave chase and opened fire on him. The _Beauregard_ being impeded by a heavy sea and finding escape impossible, ran ashore at the point already described.

The next morning the cruiser, accompanied by the _Tuscarora_, tried to board the _Beauregard_, but they were attacked by two Confederate batteries, one to the north and another to the south of the stranded vessel, and driven off, the _Tuscarora_ being struck by a Confederate shell in her quarter. The _Beauregard_ is still conspicuous on Carolina Beach at all stages of the tide, showing her battered hull high above the level of the sea.

The "Douro."

In the spring of 1863 this fine steamer was captured at sea by the Federal cruisers, sent to a port of adjudication in the North, condemned and sold at auction, taken to the British Provinces (Halifax, I think) and there purchased, it was said, by the Confederate Government. At all events she was fitted out for the same service and in a few weeks reappeared at Nassau, where I saw her as a Confederate steamer under the Confederate flag. On the night of the 11th of October, 1863, the _Douro_ attempted to run the blockade at New Inlet, loaded with a valuable cargo of 550 bales of cotton, 279 boxes of tobacco, 20 tierces of tobacco, and a quantity of turpentine and rosin, belonging to the Confederate Government. At 8.30 of the same night she eluded the Federal fleet and was running up the beach towards Masonboro in two and one-half fathoms of water, when she was pursued by the cruiser _Nansemond_, which tried to get between the _Douro_ and the beach, but failed because of shoal water. Had the _Douro_ kept on her course she would have escaped, but, taking a panic, she reversed her course, and headed back for the bar at New Inlet, was then intercepted by the _Nansemond_ and run ashore, instead of facing the gun fire of the fleet with a chance of getting under Fort Fisher's protection. The captain and most of the crew escaped in the _Douro's_ boats, but five, remaining on board, were captured by the cruiser _Nansemond_. It was said at the time that this fine ship (a propeller) was owned in Wilmington and that her cargo was for the Confederate Government. She now lies just above the _Hebe_ between Fort Fisher and Masonboro Inlet.

The "Dee."

Two of the finest blockade runners, sister ships, called the _Don_ and the _Dee_, met at last with disaster. The _Don_, after running the gauntlet some ten or twelve times, was captured at sea. She had been commanded from her first voyage to the one before the last by Captain Roberts, so-called, really Captain Hobart, of the Royal British Navy, who later became Hobart Pasha, admiral in chief of the Turkish Navy. He was a son of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. The _Dee_ was commanded for three successful voyages by Capt. George H. Bier, formerly a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. At 8 o'clock a.m. February 6, 1864, the U.S.S. _Cambridge_ on the blockade off New Inlet discovered the _Dee_ from Hamilton, Bermuda, loaded with pig lead, bacon, and military stores, bound for Wilmington, ashore and on fire about a mile to the southward of Masonboro Inlet.

The _Cambridge_ at once boarded the stranded vessel and attempted to salve her, but the fire was too hot and the ship too deeply embedded in the sand to haul her off into deep water. She was accordingly bombarded and abandoned. The _Dee's_ crew escaped to the shore, with the exception of seven men, who fell into the hands of the Federals. It is not known whether the _Dee_ ran ashore from accident or design.

Steamer "Nutfield."

I learn from official reports that after Captain Roe of the U.S.S. _Sassacus_ had practically destroyed the _Wild Dayrell_ by gun fire he stood out to sea and regained his position in the outer line of cruisers, known as the Bermuda line or track, and that at daylight of the 4th of February, 1864, he discovered a blockade runner to the northward, which proved to be the fine new iron steamer _Nutfield_ of 750 tons (unusually large size), from Bermuda bound for Wilmington. The _Sassacus_, being the faster ship, increased her speed to thirteen knots, and at noon succeeded in getting in range of the _Nutfield_ with her 100-pounder rifle guns, which did such execution that the hard pressed _Nutfield_ changed her course, heading for the land, and ran ashore at New River Inlet. The _Nutfield's_ crew set her on fire and fled precipitately in their boats for the beach. One of the _Nutfield's_ boats capsized in the surf and the Federals tried to rescue the crew but only succeeded in saving the purser, the others being supposedly drowned. Efforts were made by the _Sassacus_ for two days to haul off the _Nutfield_, which was a very valuable prize, being loaded with an assorted cargo of merchandise, drugs, munitions of war, Enfield rifles, a battery of eight very valuable Whitworth guns, and a quantity of pig lead; the battery and the lead were thrown overboard during the chase. The _Nutfield_ had escaped from the blockading fleet at New Inlet the night before and was off New River intending to try the Cape Fear the following night, but most unfortunately fell in with the _Sassacus_, a fast cruiser, during the day. A large part of her valuable cargo was taken out of her by the Federals.

The "Banshee's" Narrow Escape.[2]

Mr. Thomas E. Taylor was agent for the blockade runner _Banshee_, and I quote his narrative: "One very dark night (I think it was either on the fourth or fifth trip) we made the land about twelve miles above Fort Fisher, and were creeping quietly down as usual, when all at once we made a cruiser out, lying on our port bow, and slowly moving about 200 yards from the shore. It was a question of going inside or outside her; if we went outside she was certain to see us, and would chase us into the very jaws of the fleet. As we had very little steam up we chose the former alternative, hoping to pass unobserved between the cruiser and the shore, aided by the dark background of the latter. It was an exciting moment; we got almost abreast of her, as we thought, unobserved, and success seemed within our grasp, till we saw her move in toward us and heard her hail as we came on, 'Stop that steamer or I will sink you!'

"Old Steele growled out that we hadn't time to stop, and shouted down the engine-room tube to Erskine to pile on the coal, as concealment was no longer any use. Our friend, which we afterwards found out was the _Niphon_, opened fire as fast as she could and sheered close into us, so close that her boarders were called away twice, and a slanging match went on between us, like that sometimes to be heard between two penny steamboat captains on the Thames. She closed the dispute by shooting away our foremast, exploding a shell in our bunkers, and, when we began to leave her astern, by treating us to grape and canister. It was a miracle that no one was killed, but the crew were all lying flat on the deck, except the steersman; and at one time I fear he did the same, for as Pilot Burroughs suddenly cried, 'My God, Mr. Taylor, look there!' I saw our boat heading right into the surf, so, jumping from the bridge, I ran aft and found the helmsman on his stomach. I rushed at the wheel and got two or three spokes out of it, which hauled her head off land, but it was a close shave.

"Two miles farther we picked up another cruiser, which tried to treat us in a similar manner, but as we had plenty of steam we soon left her. A little farther we came across a large side-wheel boat, which tried to run us down, missing us only by a few yards; after that we were unmolested and arrived in safe, warmly congratulated by Lamb, who thought from the violent cannonade that we must certainly be sunk.

"Not more than one man out of a hundred would have brought a boat through as Steele did that night--the other ninety-nine would have run her ashore."

The "Venus."

The official report of Lieutenant Lamson, U.S. steamer _Nansemond_, off New Inlet, October 21, 1863, says, "I have the honor to report the capture and entire destruction of the blockade runner _Venus_, from Nassau to Wilmington with a cargo of lead, drugs, dry goods, bacon, and coffee.

"This morning at 12.30 she attempted to run the blockade, but was discovered by this vessel, and after a short chase overhauled. When abeam, I opened fire on her, one shot striking her foremast, another exploding in her wardroom, a third passing through forward and killing one man, and a fourth, striking under the guard near the water line, knocked in an iron plate, causing her to make water fast. She was run ashore. We boarded her at once, capturing her captain and twenty-two of her officers and crew. The U.S.S. _Niphon_, Acting Master J.B. Breck commanding, which was lying near where she went ashore, came immediately to my assistance. I ran a 9-inch hawser to the _Venus_, and Captain Breck sent a 7-inch hawser to the _Nansemond's_ bow, but all our efforts were unavailing, as the tide had turned ebb and she was going at least 14 knots an hour when she went ashore. Finding it impossible to move her, I ordered her to be set on fire, which was done in three places by Acting Ensigns Porter and Henderson, of this vessel. Our boats were for some time exposed to a sharp fire of musketry from the beach, and the vessel was within range of one of the batteries. We had just commenced shelling her machinery when another vessel was seen off shore, and by the light of the burning steamer I was able to give her one shot and started in pursuit, but it was so cloudy and hazy that we lost sight of her almost immediately. I ran east at the rate of fourteen knots till 7 o'clock, but did not get sight of her again, and ran back, making the land on the northward.

"In the meantime, Captain Breck, with the assistance of the _Iron Age_, Lieut. Commander Stone, had completed the destruction of the _Venus_, her boilers having been blown up and her hull riddled with shell.

"I have to express my thanks to Captain Breck for the prompt assistance rendered me by sending his boats to assist in carrying my heavy hawser to the _Nansemond's_ bows. His boats then reported to Acting Ensign J.H. Porter, who was in charge of the _Venus_. The fire forward not burning well as it was expected, he sent a boat on board in the morning and rekindled it."

The _Venus_ was 265 feet long and 1,000 tons measurement, and is represented by her captain and officers to have been one of the finest and fastest vessels engaged in running the blockade. She had the finest engines of any vessel in this trade and was sheathed completely over with iron. She drew eight feet of water, and when bound out last, crossed the bar at low water with over 600 bales of cotton on board. The wrecks of the _Hebe_, _Douro_, and _Venus_ are within a short distance of each other.

A private notebook was found by the Federal boarding party in the effects of the captain of the _Venus_, in which a list of blockade runners engaged in the year 1863 was entered as follows, a total of 75 steamers, of which 34 were captured or destroyed, but this list was not complete, as a hundred at least were engaged during that period.

Vessels Engaged in Running the Blockade in 1863.

(Those marked C had been captured or destroyed.)

_Nina_ (C) _Leopard_ (C) _Antonica_ _Thistle_ (C) _Douro_ (C) _Calypso_ (C) _Granite City_ (C) _Flora_ _Ruby_ (C) _Eagle_ (C) _Havelock_ _Douglas_ _Annie Childs_ (C) _Wave Queen_ (C) _Giraffe_ (C) _Gladiator_ _Hebe_ (C) _Venus_ (C) _Juno_ (C) _Princess Royal_ (C) _Cronstadt_ (C) _Phantom_ (C) _Lord Clyde_ _Dolphin_ _Hansa_ _Ella_ _Spaulding_ (C) _Mary Ann_ _Mail_ (C) _Spunkie Cornubia_ (C) _Nicolai I_ (C) _St. John_ (C) _Hero_[3] _Gertrude_ (C) _Britannia_ (C) _Emma_ (C) _Georgiana_ (C) _J.P. Hughes_ _Banshee_ _Alice_ (_Mobile_) _Aries_ (_St. Thomas_) (C) _Neptune_ (C) _Norseman_ (C) _Merrimac_ (C) _Kate_ (C) _Orion_ _Siriens_ (_Sirius_?) _Atlantic_ _Eugénie_ _Cuba_ (_Mobile_) (C) _Raccoon_ _Arabian_ (C) _Jupiter_ _Gibraltar_ _Boston_ _Juno II_ _Scotia_ _Flora II_ _Herald_ _Elizabeth_ (C) _R.E. Lee_ _Beauregard_ _Sumter_ _Corsica_ _Bendigo_ _Diamond_ _Margaret and Jessie_ _Don_ _Pet_ _Charleston_ _Rouen_ _Hero II_ _Fanny_ _Stonewall Jackson_

Total, 75; captured and destroyed, 34.

The "Hebe."

Between the 15th of August and the 21st of October, 1863, the Federal fleet known as the "North American Blockading Squadron" drove ashore five blockade runners between New Inlet and Masonboro--the _Arabian_ inside the bar of New Inlet, which became an obstruction to our ships trying to pass her; the beautiful steamer _Hebe_ near Masonboro Inlet, the _Phantom_, the _Douro_, and the _Venus_ near each other off Masonboro Sound.

As her classical name implies, the _Hebe_ was a fine example of marine architecture. She was loaded with a full cargo of drugs, coffee, clothing, and provisions, and although she was a fast ship of 14 knots, she seems to have made a bad landfall on the morning of the 18th of August, 1863, and while she was heading for New Inlet, distant about eight miles, she was intercepted by the Federal gunboat _Niphon_, when she up helm and ran ashore, the crew escaping in boats.

When the Federals attempted to haul the _Hebe_ off the beach after she had run ashore, they met with formidable resistance by the Confederates. Owing to a heavy sea the _Niphon's_ boat was driven ashore and the Federals were attacked by a troop of Confederate cavalry and all of them were captured. A Confederate force of riflemen, supported by a battery of Whitworth guns, also attacked the cruiser _Niphon_ from the shore and drove the blockader away from the _Hebe_, but not before the Confederate had destroyed another Federal boat load of the enemy which attempted to land. The _Niphon_ and the _Shokokon_, the latter under the command of the celebrated Lieut. W.B. Cushing, then bombarded the _Hebe_ and set her on fire.

On August 24, 1863, General Whiting, in command of the Confederate forces at Wilmington headquarters, sent to the Secretary of War, Mr. Seddon, the following account of the _Hebe_ disaster:

"Headquarters, "_Wilmington, August 24, 1863_.

"Sir: * * * Yesterday the enemy took a fancy to destroy what remained of the wreck of the _Hebe_, a Crenshaw steamer run ashore some days ago, and from which a company of the garrison of Fort Fisher was engaged in saving property. The steam frigate _Minnesota_ and five other gunboats approached the beach, and, under a terrific fire, attempted to land, but were gallantly repulsed by Captain Munn, with a Whitworth and two small rifle guns of short range. The site was about nine miles from Fisher, on the narrow and low beach between the sounds and the ocean, and completely under the fire of the enormous batteries of the enemy. A portion of the squadron, steaming farther up the beach, effected a landing some two miles off in largely superior force, and came down upon Captain Munn, still gallantly fighting his little guns against the _Minnesota_, they being moved by hand, and, having fired his last round, the Whitworths disabled, one gunner killed, a lieutenant and four men wounded, Captain Munn and his small party were compelled to fall back under a heavy enfilade fire toward Fort Fisher, with the loss of his guns.

"This took place about nine miles from Fort Fisher and about the same distance from the city. The narrow beach, separated from the mainland by the sounds, gives every facility to the enemy, and secures them from us who are without boats or means of getting at them. The Fiftieth (North Carolina) Regiment--the only one I have--was off at a distance, called by a landing made by the enemy at Topsail, in which they burned, the night before, a schooner, a salt work, and took two artillerymen prisoners.

"These little affairs, however, are only mentioned in illustration. This is the first time they have landed; but what they have done once they can do again and doubtless will. There is no day scarcely until the winter gales set in but what they could put 5,000 men on the beach; they can get them from New Berne and Beaufort before I could know it. I only say if they do they can get either Fort Fisher or the towns, as they elect, if they set about it at once.

"The efforts of the enemy to stop our steamers are increasing. Their force is largely increased. I have met with a serious and heavy loss in that Whitworth, a gun that in the hands of the indefatigable Lamb has saved dozens of vessels and millions of money to the Confederate States. I beg that a couple of the Whitworth guns originally saved by him from the _Modern Greece_ may be sent here at once. Their long range, five or six miles, makes them most suitable for a seaboard position. Could I get them with horses we could save many a vessel that will now be lost to us. But chiefly in this letter I beg of you, if you concur in my views, to lay the matter of the necessity of increasing the force here before the President.

"Very respectfully,

"W.H.C. Whiting,

"_Major General_.

"Hon. James A. Seddon,

"_Secretary War, Richmond_."

A Port of Refuge.

The natural advantages of Wilmington at the time of the War between the States made it an ideal port for blockade runners, there being two entrances to the river--New Inlet on the north and Western or Main Bar on the south of Cape Fear.

The slope of our beach is very gradual to deep water. The soundings along the coast are regular, and the floor of the ocean is remarkably even. A steamer hard pressed by the enemy could run along the outer edge of the breakers without great risk of grounding; the pursuer, being usually of deeper draft, was obliged to keep farther off shore.

The "Lilian."

The Confederate steamer _Lilian_, of which I was then purser, was chased for nearly a hundred miles from Cape Lookout by the U.S. steamer _Shenandoah_, which sailed a parallel course within half a mile of her and forced the _Lilian_ at times into the breakers. This was probably the narrowest escape ever made by a blockade runner in a chase. The _Shenandoah_ began firing her broadside guns at three o'clock in the afternoon, her gunners and the commanding officers of the batteries being distinctly visible to the _Lilian's_ crew. A heavy sea was running, which deflected the aim of the man-of-war, and this alone saved the _Lilian_ from destruction. A furious bombardment by the _Shenandoah_, aggravated by the display of the _Lilian's_ Confederate flag, was continued until nightfall, when, by a clever ruse, the _Lilian_, guided by the flash of her pursuer's guns, stopped for a few minutes; then, putting her helm hard over, ran across the wake of the warship straight out to sea, and, on the following morning, passed the fleet off Fort Fisher in such a crippled condition that several weeks were spent in Wilmington for repairs.

The "Lynx" and Her Pilot.

He is now the Rev. James William Craig,[4] Methodist preacher, but I like to think of him as Jim Billy, the Cape Fear pilot of war times, on the bridge of the swift Confederate blockade runner _Lynx_, commanded by the intrepid Captain Reed, as she races through the blackness of night on her course west nor'west, straight and true for the Federal fleet off New Inlet, in utter silence, the salt spray of the sea smiting the faces of the watches as they gaze ahead for the first sign of imminent danger.