Confederate privateers
The Confederate Congress resolved (February, 1862) to prosecute the war with vigor.
Before the close of July following they had more than twenty vessels afloat as privateers to depredate upon American commerce, and had destroyed millions of dollars' worth of property.
At the first, the most formidable of these were the
Nashville and
Sumter.
The former was a sidewheel steamer, carried a crew of eighty men, and was armed with two long 12-pounder rifled cannon.
She was destroyed (Feb. 28, 1862) by the
Montauk,
Captain Worden, in the
Ogeechee River.
The career of the
Sumter was also short, but much more active and destructive.
She had a crew of sixty-five men and twenty-five marines, and was heavily armed.
She had run the blockade at the mouth of the
Mississippi River (Jan. 30, 1861), ran among the
West India islands, making many prizes of vessels bearing the
American flag, and became the terror of the
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Privateer ship Sumter. |
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Confederate naval commission. |
American merchant service, skilfully eluding National vessels of war sent out to capture her. She crossed the
Atlantic and, at the close of 1861, sought the shelter of British guns at
Gibraltar.
There she was watched by the
Tuscarora, United States navy, and was sold early in 1862.
Mr. Laird, a ship-builder at
Liverpool and a member of the British Parliament, contracted to build sea-rovers for the
Confederates.
The first of his production
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that went to sea was the
Oreto.
Mr. Adams, the
American minister, called the attention of the
British government to the matter (Feb. 18, 1862), but nothing was done.
She went to a British port of the Bahamas, and ran the blockade at
Mobile, under British colors, with a valuable cargo.
Her name was changed to
Florida, and she was placed in charge of a late
officer of the United States navy (
John Newland Maffit), and again went to sea in December.
the
Florida hovered most of the time off the
American coast, closely watched, everywhere leaving a track of desolation behind her. She ran down to the coast of
South America, and, alarmed at the presence of a National vessel of war, ran in among the
Brazilian fleet in the harbor of
Bahia.
Captain Collins, of the
Wachusett, ran in (Oct. 7, 1864), boarded the
Florida, lashed her to his vessel, and bore her to
Hampton Roads, Va., where she was sunk.
The most famous of the Anglo-Confederate vessels was the
Alabama, built by
Laird and commanded by
Raphael Semmes, who had been captain of the
Sumter.
Her career is elsewhere related (see
Alabama). The career of the
Shenandoah, another Anglo-Confederate privateer, was largely in the
Indian, Southern, and Pacific oceans, plundering and destroying American vessels.
On the borders of the
Arctic Ocean, near
Bering Strait, she attended a convention of American whaling ships (June 28, 1865) without being suspected, as she bore the
United States flag.
Suddenly she revealed her character, and before evening she had made prizes of ten whalers, of which eight were burned in a group before midnight. It was the last act in the drama of the
Civil War. Her commander, informed of the close of the war, sailed for
England and gave up the vessel to a British war-ship as a prize.
the
Shenandoah was a Clyde-built steamer, long and rakish, of 790 tons burden.
Against the sending out of all these vessels
Mr. Adams protested in vain.
