The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-12 00:00:00

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

(From the Anglo-American Timls.)
[SECOND NOTICE.] •
My Adventures Afloat in the Sumter and Alabama.
By Admiral Raphael Semmes.
The name under which the Alabama sailed from
Liverpool is explained as being the 290th vessel
built by the Lairds. She was of 900 tons burden,
230 feet in length, 32 in width, 20 in depth, drawing
when ready for a cruise 15 feet of water. She was
rigged as a bark with long lower masts, which en-
abled her to carry large fore and aft sails. Her
scantling was light compared to vessels of her class
in the United States Navy, being more designed as
a scourge on commerce than for battle. Her engines
were of 300-horse power, and all in all she was a
perfect steamer and sailing ship at the same time,
though not as swift as supposed. Her propeller
could be raised in 15 minutes, and lowered with
equal facility. Her armament was eight guns, six
32-pounders in broadside, 100-pounder rifled Blakely
on the forecastle, and a smooth 8-inch horegun abaft
the mainmast. her crew was 120 men,with 2-1 officers.
The cost of the ship complete was two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. The escape from Liverpool
is described, and the arming and commissioning at
Terceira, from which island No. 290 issued as the
Confederate man-of-war Alabama, and commenced
a career replete with disasters, but without a single
good--alike the destroyer of property and harmony,
marking her track with ships on fire, and leaving
behind her a heritage of discord. We do not intend,
at least here, to discuss the arguments of Admiral
Semmes to show that his career was legal and
abundantly covered by precedent even from the
history of the United States. We desire the record
of his cruise to stand alone, himself telling the mo-
tives and sentiments which moved him to action in
the despotic position he assumed. The book abounds
with proof how be regarded his enemy. He held
that the America warring against his section was only
Puritan, and he replied bya a rabid hatred of the Pu-
ritan element. " With all the Puritan's pretension to
learning, and amid all the appliances of civilization
by which he has surrounded himself, he is still the
same old Plymouth-Rock man that his ancestor
was three centuries ago. He is the same gloomy,
saturnine fanatic ; he has the same impatience of
other men's opinions, and is the same vindictive
tyrant that he was when he expelled Roger Wil-
liams from his dominions. The cockatrice's egg
has batched a savage in short, that refuses to be
civilized." This we extract at random to show the
feelings with which this judge went forth to admi-
nister international law on the high seas.
We had other grounds for asserting that Admiral
6emmes was a sea-lawyer than the long-winded
historical retrospects and legalargmnentswith which
he opens his book. Indeed he claimed for himself
a monopoly of law, at least in the Alabama, and to
show his impatience of any one in his company even
pretending to such a knowledge, we may quote his
own words :—" Whenever I found 1 had a sea-
lawyer among the crew, I got rid of him as soon as
possible—giving him a chance to desert. I re-
served the quids and quos and pros and cons exclu-
sively for myself." Ile had established a Confe-
derate Court of Admiralty on board for the trial
of doubtful questions ; but he does not tell how it
was constituted. It is clear, as he drove every
" sea-lawyer" out of the ship, that no One remained
but himself; and although be enters the decrees
against the Lafayette and the Lauretta as if those
of a regular court, they could have been but his
own ipse digit. The questions arising were often
sufficient to puzzle an able advocate trained to
sifting such evidence. But these questions appear
to have given very little trouble to the gallant sea-
lawyer, who almostinvariably cut them short with the
sword and torch. Cargoes of coal for the Peninsular
and Oriental Company —for the Messageries Impe-
riale—and in other cases where there could be little
doubt in the mind of any rational man that the
freight belonged to a peaceful company of neutrals
unconnected with America, were mercilessly de-
stroyed, and in cases where he hit any house or in-
dividual in his list as hostile to the Confederacy or
distasteful to himself the sea-lawyer always found
the capture a goof prize. For instance, in the case
of the Wales, " consigned to and probably owned
by the obnoxious house of the airings in Boston,
whose ship, the Neapolitan, I had burnt in the
Straits of Gibraltar. This British house had ren-
dered itself exceedingly active during the war in
the Federal interest, importing large quantities
of arms, and otherwise aiding the enemy; and I
took a special pleasure therefore in applying the
torch to its property." Again the Ariel, which he
captured when on the look out for the treasuresteamer
from Aspinwall to New York. Unfortunately for
the Alabama she was outward bound, and there-
fore had passengers, but not gold. For three days
he kept her, in the hopes of capturing some craft
of lesser value into which to turn the 500 passen-
ger, and burn the Ariel, which he the more ear-
nestly desired, "as she belonged to Mr. Vanderbilt
of New York, an old steamboat captain, who had
amassed a large fortune in trade, and was a bitter
enemy to the South." Here, then, he was simply re-
strained from destroying the vessel by the fact that
with it he must destroy a number of passengers, and
it was only when compelled to proceed for the des-
tination to which he was then bound that he allowed
the vessel to depart on a ransom bond, Capt. Jones
pledging his word that it would be regarded by
Vanderbilt as a debt of honour. " The bond,"
adds Semmes, " is for sale cheap to any one desir-
ing to redeem Mr. Vanderbilt's honour." The au-
thor furnishes many instances of the motive upon
which this judge of every one's property on the high
seas worked. Yet there is no betterproof of this than in
the tone of the book. Let any man wholly free from
I bias read it, and answer the question whether its
writer was a proper person fairly and impartially to
decide questions on Federal property. He was
always receiving batches of papers and letter-bags
from captures, The e
the latter he kept
foorr nsh
ies r ho ew dni ert
er
ai bdui
nt egd, taontdh essohmi pe,
curious secrets he alleges he was let into thereby,
unconnected—atApbotograplheasantdina love-letter from
a material way—with busi-
ness.the sea captain's bag wo nor
Idardoipnfgr,ob
natmhoongdothsierevsartio-
ous invoices and bills passionatem
reassure the fair ones that their secrets are safe
as they have all been consigned to the deep. These
letters and papers, coming from the North, bad a
Northern way of putting the questions concerning
the war, which seemed to fire the soul of the equit-
able Semmes with patriotic indignation and brighten
to a fiercer flame his ever-lighted torch. He never
seems to tire of abusing and expressing his contempt
for the Yankee arguments and the " Yankee hash,"
but, very innocently, he winces and kicks viciously
against what he desires people to believe he re-
gardeditn
papers
s
hsavdithanporthofeoruenffdeectonbteesmidpets.
spurring The h Northern e
partial judge into the destruction ofNorthern
trader. When he got on the track
eowaflestl
ehdtee Artnhmesetsriahetieapsns,
bjtemarkinflgeteht,e
gasratinhetoyEounnrogpeooffifcetrshe
his posts came in with great regularity, for he had
I only to lie still, allow the ships to come down and
deliver them, and be destroyed. Ile thanks the
editors of the New Yorkgerald for valuable informa-
tion regarding the enemy's gunboats, which enabled
him to take the better care of the Alabama, adding,
" The Americans effected many reforms in the art
of war during our late struggle. Perhaps this was
the only war in which the newspapers ever ex-
plained beforehand all the movements of armies and
fleets to the enemy." Nor this only ; for the New
York papers gave him information about the Ala-
bama, where she was going, and where she was ex-
pected to go, and he was glad to find that while the
cruiser was drawing in to the Empire City itself,
they were persuaded that it was on the coast of
Brazil. The accounts given of the captures he made
could scarcely have added to the affection he already
bore his Northern brethren, who he so heartily and
continuously abuses for abusing him, while all his
moralizing is in a strain of wonder at the Yankee
hatred of the South, as illustrated by their plunder-
ings and burnings there, totally forgetting that his
mission was to apply the torch to everything be-
longing to the North which he could lay his hands
upon. According to this legal authority the regu-
lar Government of the United States had no right
to burn anything, and, in doing so, displayed their