The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-17 00:00:00

Half-an-hour on Board the Alabama.

The Alabama arrived at Port Royal on the 20th
of January, 11 days from Galveston, and the follow-
ing morning great excitement existed in Kingston
when rumours spread that she had recently been
engaged with a Federal gunboat, and had sunk her
after a short engagement. The following account
may generally be relied upon ; it has been gleaned
from a personal examination of the vessel and ar-
mament, and from actors in the taking of the Hat-
teras,Federal gunboat :
The Alabama screw steamer, of wood, copper
lined, Captain Semmes commander, of 1,015 tons
burden, 300-horse power, capable of being worked
up to 1,200, 210 feet long, and 32 Let beam, painted
black outside, with a round stern and sloping bows,
bark rigged, witb wire ropes and furnished with
every necessary for a quick sailing vessel, draws 15
to 16 feet of water and has an armament of nine
guns—namely, one long 68-pounder smooth bore
(8-inch) and one 100-pounder Blakeley sun, both
pivot guns, the latter rifled with nine grooves and
of 72 inches calibre ; six long 32's, smooth bores;
and one James's rifled field piece, 11 grooves, with
a sharper twist than that of the 100-pounder, and
carrying a 25-pound projectile; this gun had been
captured with the Ariel (a Californian steamer) off
Jamaica, in the beginning of January. Crew 137
officers and men, all told; the latter, with the ex-
ception of eight, are said to be Englishmen, and
have in many cases been collected from the,, hands,
taken on board the prizes. The majority of the offi-
cers have been educated at the United States' Naval
School, near Chesapeake-bay, and are well informed
in naval and military sciences. Average speed 12
knots, with a pressure of 111 b. per square inch.
We now come to the circumstances which led to
the Alabama seeking shelter at Port Royal. Cap-
tain Semmes, having heard that Galveston, on the
coast of Texas, was to be attacked by the Federals,
and believing that a fleet of transports would be
off that. town, conceived the plan of cutting out
some of the troopships and damaging or destroy-
ing the others. With this intention he made to-
wards the port, and about four o'clock p.m. on Jan.
11, the coast being very low, made out the masts of
the Federal vessels, before any land could be dis-
tinguished; here ho intended to lie to until dark-
ness would favour the execution of his project, but
fortunately, perhaps,—for it turned out that all the
vessels at Galveston were men-of-war, heavily
armed, and that none of the troopships had arrived
—the Hatteras, Northern gunboat, espied the Ala-
bama, and gave chase, under the impression that she
was a merchantman running the blockade. The Con-
federate, as an officer on board graphically described
it, baited the gunboat as a hunter baits a hog with
corn to lure it from its lair, by lying to until the
Hatteras approached, and then taking advantage of
her greater speed to get well ahead again. This
game continued for several hours, and the ruse had
succeeded so well that by 8 or 9 o'clock p.m. the
gunboat had been allured some 25 miles from her
consorts ; then the Alabama waited in earnest the
approach of her enemy. At this stage accounts
vary ; some say that the Hatteras on being hailed
replied, "her Majesty's gunboat Petrel," while
others state such to have been the answer from the
Alabama. However, the Hatteras, on coming within
200 yards, was received with a broadside from the
Alabama, which the Federal vessel immediately re-
turned; and the firing continued without intermis-
sion for 17 minutes, at distances varying from 70 to
320 yards. Then:the Hatteras fired two guns from
the off side, and otherwise signified an intention to
surrender, having been totaily disabled; several
parts were on fire, the engines damaged, and a hole
on one side, about two yards in diameter, made by
the bursting of an 8-inch shell. No time was lost
in removing the prisoners to the Alabama, and
scarcely had thiee quarters of an hour elapsed
from the first shot being fired beforo the Hatteras
sank beneath the waves amid the cheers of the vic-
torious Southerners.

The Hatteras was a paddlewheel steamer, com-
manded by Capt. Blake, of 1,200 tons, and supposed
to have been a river steamer of no great stability
converted into a gunboat, and armed with nine guns
—viz., three rifled 68-pounders, four 32's smooth
bores, one rifled 20-pounder, and a 12-pounder
howitzer. Her crew consisted of 17 officers and
102 or 103 men. Tne casualties on board the Hat-
teras were two killed and 17 missing; in the Ala-
bama one wounded.
The Alabama fired all shells, except from 32's,
with percussion fuzees for the rifled and concussion
fuzees for the smooth-bore projectile, but many of
them passed through both sides of the Hatteras
without bursting, in consequence of the close quar-
ters at which the action took place. The 68-
pounder pivot-gun, in charge of an Englishman,
who had served his time in the royal navy, and
passed in gunnery on board the Excellent, fired
under his direction seven shells during the
every
A,
en-
gagement, and with wonderful precision
shot hitting about the Water line. The
was struck on the starboard side of thestelranbpaonista,
immediately above the. screw, by apparently a 32-
pound shot, by three 12-pounder shot on the same
side amidships, by a shell on the port-bow, causing
a splintered aperture, and by a 32-pounder projec-
tile through the funnel and one of the boats, a
splinter from the former having caused the only
casualty they suffered.
The men are paid from to £6 a month,
and the prize money already accumulated is very

great, a lieutenant's share being 17,000 dole., atfd
the captain's between 200,000 and 300,000 dots.
On capturing a vessel every precaution is taken
to insure a just valuation of the cargo, ship, &e.,
by assembling a board of officers, the proceedings
of which are duly recorded, and any articles ap-
propriated are taken charge of by the purser, and
regularly issued to and paid for by the crew.
We may anticipate hearing more of the Alabama
by the next mail, for it is believed that Commodore
Wilkes, of Trent notoriety,"and squadron are watch-
ing the exit from Port Royal, two steamers, re-
porta to be Yankees, having been seen during the
day of the 23d cruising in the offing.
Captain Semmes proposes to sail on Monday or
Tuesday next, and states that his intention is to
fight any Yankee vessels that may waylay him in
going out of harbour or near the coast.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Rulers have often succeeded in turning
away the thoughts of their subjects from domestic
misgovernment by dazzling them with the bril-
liancy of some foreign enterprise. It is an old de-
vice of kingcraft ; but then it requires for its ac-
complishment an able, strong-willed monarch, a
rival nation with whom a war would be popular,
and a belief among the people that they are about
to do something that will make them famous and
admired. These being the conditions under which
such a design can be successful, we do not think
that William 1., King of Prussia, is destined to di-
vert the attention of his subjects from his breaches
of the Constitution by engaging them in a war for
the suppression of the Polish revolt. Our readers
will have seen the announcement that the Conven-
tion between Prussia and Russia on the subject of
the insurrection was signed a few days since. The
King, animated by the praise of the Royalist depu-
tations, and triumphing in his masterly reply to his
Chamber, actually takes the Russian Empire under
his protection. He assumes towards the revolted
Poles the position of the Emperor Nicholas to the
Hungarians in the days of that Potentate's great-
ness. How splendid a destiny, to place under an
obligation the Imperial House which for so long
has prided itself on conferring favours and not re-
ceiving them ! The Romanoffs support Legitimacy,
but K:ng William supports the Romanoffs. So let
the triet,ds of revolution tremble all over the world,
Let the disobedient Poles give up their guns and
scythes, and throw themselves on the mercy of the
paternal Government the honcur of whose mili-
tary service they have failed to appreciate, for
the King of Prussia, who defies a majority of his
own Legislature, will show his neighbours how to
deal with insubordination within their frontiers.
If Russia cannot control her revolted subjects, then
let her appeal to King William, and his powerful
arm will rescue her. When Poland is " tranquil-
lised," and its unruly sons are marched off to the
extremities of the empire under the guardianship
of Russian bayonets, the lesson will not be lost on
the Liberals of Berlin. They will know what it is
to withstand the powers that Heaven has placed
over them. The example of one legitimate ruler
thus nobly aiding his brother tocrush rebellion will
terrify the souls of demagogues for ever. There is
but one obstacle to the accomplishment of this
notable project, and that is the Prussian people
itself. The King of Prussia has hastened to con-
clude with the Russian Emperor a Convention, the
object of which is to help him to reduce once more
to slavery the gallant people who have again risen
against his Government. No doubt the stipulations
are mutual, and if any disturbance takes place in
Russian Poland the King will have a right to call
on St. Petersburg for assistance. But for the pre-
sent the war is confined to the Russian territory,
and the only meaning of the Convention is that the
troops of the Prussian Monarchy should be em-
ployed against the Poles beyond its own frontier.
We have not the details of the Convention, but, as
will be seen by our correspondence, 80,000 men are
being concentrated in the eastern provinces of
Prussia, and, if the insurrection lasts, may be ex-
pected soon to cross the frontier. In the meantime,
the Russian troops are permitted freely to enter the
Prussian territory in furtherance of their military
operations, and they receive all the aid the King's
officers can give them. This alliance indicates that
in the opinion of the two Governments the insur-
rection is an event of the very highest importance.
Were it, as represented by the Russians, merely a
class movement, or confined to one or two districts,
there would be no necessity for so humiliating a con-
fession of impotence as is involved in a Convention
with the Court of Berlin. It must have been no
small trial to the pride of the Russian family thus
to follow the example of Austria, struggling at once
with Hungarian and Italian revolution, and sinking
into the gulf of bankruptcy. But, apparently, the
spread of the rebellion has forced the Czar to lay
aside any such fastidiousness. The country is
covered with armed bands, which increase in num-
bers every day. The oui break of the insurrection
we know to have been sudden ; and it is now said
that it was totally unconnected with what is called
the Central Revolutionary Committee. The con-
scription, in fact, drove the young men of the coun-
try desperate. In a few weeks almost every educated
youth in the principal towns would have been
hurried off to the army, and the nation decapitated,
as it were, by the latest and most atrocious act of
Russian policy. Accordingly, all over Poland those
subject to conscription turned out, determined to
perish in the woods and swamps rather than resign
themselves to the fate which tyranny prepared for
them. The southern parts of the country are repre •
sented to he now entirely in the power of the in-
surgents; the Russian commanders hold only one
or two towns in each, and the ground on which their
troops may happen to be encamped. It is a war in
which the fatigues and hardships will be many, the
chances of glory nothing, while cruelty and horrible
retaliations will cause every man of real military
feeling to shrink from taking a part in it. And this
is the war into which the King of Prussia would
thrust his subjects, without allowing them to judge
whether the matter concerns them, or whether the
strength of one of the most civilised nations of
Europe should be devoted to the destruction of an
unhappy people who are fighting for the last liber-
ties of human beings! Cultivated and enlightened
Germany is to be enlisted on behalf of a tyranny so
unbearable that to avoid it multitudes of young men
brought up in comfort have fled at this inclement
season from their homes and taken refuge in woods
and morasses. What has the Prussian army to say
to the noble campaign which King William designs
for it ? Are the citizen soldiers of a constitutional
country ready to become the conscript-catchers of
the Russian Government? Whatever feuds there
have been between German and Pole in past times,
we cannot believe that any section of the German
people will give its sanction to so foul an attack on
national and human rights. Certain it is that such
an intervention as the King purposes will destroy
every sympathy that exists between him and the
English people. If this be the end for which the
Prussian Power exists—if a Holy Alliance more un-
scrupulous than that of a former generation really
crushes the last hopes of Poland—then Englishmen
will see without concern any calamity which may
fall on the Prussian Monarchy. But that such an
intervention will take place we cannot believe.
The King forgets that he has a Chamber to check
him, and that both Germans and Poles are in-
terested in forbidding the extravagance which he
con templates.

HERALD.— The good faith or the bad fortune of
the Confederate States has hitherto secured to the
North the possession of the sea, and for the most
part of the navigable rivers of the South. When
the cotton states seceded from the Union they seized
the forts and arsenals garrisoned by Federal troops
within their frontiers, for these belonged to them
as completely as any other part of their territory ;
but they made no attempt to seize United States
ships in their harbours. That would have been an
act of war. The State of Virginia did seize the
vessels in the dockyard of Norfolk which the Fede-
rals failed to destroy; for when Virginia seceded
war had already been commenced, though not de-
clared, by President Lincoln. Southern officers in
the Federal service did not attempt to carry over
their ships, which would have given some colour to
the charge of treason against them ; they simply
threw up their commissions. And thus, though
the Union lost its ablest officers and not a few of its
best seamen, it was left in possession of the whole
or nearly the whole of its navy, only one or two
vessels falling into the hands of the Confederates.
Consequently, the North has enjoyed on the water
an advantage for which as yet the skill and
courage of the South have failed to compensate.
On land the enormous superiority at first possessed
by the belligerent who had the whole of the regu-
lar army, the whole of the military stores and
artillery of the Union, and who had the means of
arming unlimited numbers of men far better than
the best-provided troops of the enemy, has been
wholly neutralised by the pluck and perseverance
of the Southern chivalry. But hitherto the Confe•
derates have been unable to create a navy. When
they have got a single vessel, or one or two vessels
afloat, they have done such deeds as their adversa-
ries would never have dreamed of attempting. The
Sumter and the Nashville—mere shells, which (me
or two well-directed shots would have sent to the
bottom—were for months the terror of Northern
commerce. The Merrimac, almost single-handed,
gained the only victory of the war. The Arkansas,
on the Mississippi, proved almost as terrible an antati
gonist. Everywhere the Confederates have proved
their personal superiority to their enemies at se aas
on land. They have the daring, the skill, the dash_ut
in which the Federals are so terribly deficient. But
they have had no ships, and without
is not often
ships naval
successes are hardly possible.
It