The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-05-08

How She Met the k~e8rsarge Which Her
Men Had Sworn to 'Lick'-
'Chain Armor."
In a recent number of the Centur
the story of the cruise and combats
the confederate steamer Alabama is r.
told briefly, and in an extremely intel
esting way, The contributors to tn
account are DR.. j. M. Browne, surgeo
of the kearsarge; Captain j. M. Kel
executive officer OF the Alabama, an
P. D. Haywood, one of the Alabama
crew. This looks at first like two o.
one side and one on the other, but MI
Haywood seems more like an observe
Of the American domestic quarrel thai
like an advocate. His few pages
which are Of Unusual interest and ap
parcntly Of no little historic value, lie
in a striking light upon the Alabama
cruise. Some poetical rubbish disap
pears, and we see an English ship put
ting to sea from an English port, man
ned by a English crew, and afterware
supplied with English guns and ammu
milton, the confederate addition to hel
being her flag, her officers and her in
structions for warfare upon American
merchantmen. Her career CLOSED
when she encountered the Kearsarge,
with American guns and an American
crew. and was sent to the bottom.
Mr.. Haywood, who was dragged on,
of the water when the ship went down,
by "a brawny fellow in petticoats and
top-boots," belonging to Il French pilot
boat that came to the rescue of the
swimmers, says that what astonished
him when he reached Cherbourg was
to find Englishmen there plying him
with questions designed to depreciate
the K~earsarge's victory.
Zone grim old tar, who had been
Quartermaster in the royal navy, and
wa saved with me, said to the point:
we was whipped because she was a
better ship, better manned, had better
guns, better served; that's about the
size of it. and he walked away l
have seen somewhere an account of
the taxing of the Hatteras that made it
q daring achievement To sneak up
to an enemy under a false hail and
pour in a broadside of metal much
heavier than she could return-surely,
no Englisn sailor, will see any thing to
the national credit in this. The poor
Show we made with the Kearsarge,
however, disposed of the glory we
achieved in burning defenseless mer-
chantmen.'
When Haywood signed in Liverpool
the articles hat made him one of the
crew of the ''29O,'' afterward the Ala
bama, the shipping master warned him
against Yankee spies and assured him
that Great Britain would o declare
war against the United States:
Next day | went aboard, and liked
the look of the vessel. Every thing, to
q practiced eye, indicated the charac.
ter of the ship. No platforms were
laid, but the place for the pivot guns
were plainly marked; her magazines
were finished and s~hot-boxes were
lying about"
At Terceira an English bark brought
her guns and war material, and more
men and the captain came by another
Then, leaving Angra on a Sun
gay morning, the Britons for the first
lime saw the flag they were to fight
under, and heard the first of Semmes'
exhortAtions:
HE told us, among other things,
hat Providence would bless our en-
.leavors to free the South from tn.
Yankees, etc. A boatswain's mate be-
lind me growled: 'Yaas, Providence
likely to bless this yer crew!' During
he night some one ornamented a
'read bag with a terrible skull and
and managed to fasten it
o one Of the mizzen braces. In the
morning the master-at-arms was hunt F,
ng for the delinquent, but the men
My laughed at him, and suggested
hat 'Chucks, the MARINE had been at
is tricks. l had been looking over
crew, and made up my mind that,
n the whole, l had never been on a y
hip with such a bad lot. They were /
II sailors from clew to earing-no hay g
lakers among them-but they were
iostly Of that class, found in seaport Q
,wns all over the world, that ship for o
le run (from port to port), and not L
II the voyage, and are always o rough,
lutinous set. They did not seem to
IRE for the ships officers, and were
to stand no 'man-o'-war W
ckey' from them" Ia
The wonder is that Captain Semmes Sc
'complished SO much. Mr.. Haywood
'knowledges his Judgment and reso- p'
tion,'' us shown by twenty-five .,
onths Of success, and in First Lieu
hant Kell he had a fine executive pl
acer. Having and fighting were not 81
and Mr.. Haywood owns to
nearly battered the life out su
a shipmate who cut his hammock
'wp M Joke. II was duly reported
sRvh land lost my grog tor ten 70
FNa 4aatS.~ rtFsM. 49, go ttH