The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1897-12-09
ABOARD THE ALABAMA.
By A. b. YEEKEs

Except III some undisguised pratt
Ga! craft on the Spanish main no
wilder set of devil -may cares and des-
peradoes ever handled ship than the
crew with which Captain Raphael
Semmes ran theConfederate privateer
Alabama for two years, and drove the
American mercantile marine from the
high seas She was not fighter, but
a commerce destroyer, and the crew
knew that she was practically little
more than pirate.
The history of her famous two
years cruise has been written by
several persons, including her com
mander, but never has it been so gra
phically described as in a little vol
ume, The Cruise of the ALABAMA by
One Of Her Crew." published by
Houghton, Miffiin q Co. The author,
Z. ID. Haywood, writes with sailors
| frankness and with a grim humor
that is irresistible His narrative, of
course, deals mainly with incidents of
life in the fo'castle or among its oc-
cupants-and there is no paucity of
incident to complain of. Haywood
had his doubts about goin to sea in sc
mysterious vessel, remembering
] with a sort of creepy feeling that there
| had been case of Sus per coll in his
OWE family. An uncle of my grand
mother, he tells us, with spirit of
enterprise that might have made him
a rich man In these times, he left his
| boggy Lancashire farm and took to
levying tolls with pistol and fast
| gray mar on the great north road
| He was taken, and granny used to
tell with pride that song was made
about him. L remember the first
| lines
Here l am LAID up in jail,
And all for the robbing of the Preston mail.
He made the usual jail delivery by
rope and ladder, and his epilaph
was, in granny's words, He kicked
amazin'."
Ultimately he put his apprehen
sions to sleep and took service aboard
$3.50" that being the designation of
the vessel as she lay at her dock in
Liverpool. Her dimensions were;- :
Length, 220 feet; breadth, 80; draft
with al weights aboard, Is: tonnage.
1,040; and she carried two horizontal
engines which indicated 1000 horse
power on her trial trip. She sailed
suddenly as the. Enrica, under the
command of Captain Butcher ran
through the North channel and off
the Irish coast to Terceira, one of the
Azores. This course was taken to
avoid the United States steamer Tus
carora, which was supposed to be ly
ing in wait in st. Georges channel
To the Azores were brought the ar
mament and munitions of the priva.
reer, also her new officers and the |
greater part Of her crew. The major |
part of the latter, Mr.. Haywood says.
were evidently seamen, stout, ana the
rest dock side loafers and turnpike
sailors Any one familiar with the
roads leading out of Brighton and |
Margate will recognize these last. |
They are picturesquely nautical in
their talk, and have always a blood |
curdling story of shipWreck and |
disaster to tell, and will occasionally |
tip you stave commencing:
With brave old Cappen Benbow
| sailed the fighting Terpslchore, |
Whoseloss true British seamen
VIII eyermore deplo-oae,
[ need not say that they are always |
thirsty and penniless. These are the |
characters that figure in the Cruelty |
log" in merchant ships. They article |
as ordinary seamen, and have most |
likely never etenped spar, and their |
officers sos II find this out, and to cor
rect their denclencies beat them blind |
and silly. The real seamen were |
nearly all "run sailors" as most OF
the ''Dickv Sand" "a cant name among
shipping men for Liverpudlians) are;
that is, they ship from port to port,
and more reckless and desperate set
does not exist. They were mostly |
English. with few Irish, Danes and
one Russian or Finn. whose real
Dame he told us was Jackslanwiski |
This jaw breaker was at once trans
lated Jack o Lantern" and so he |
was known.
1t took some little time for the mon
to splice in" with one another, and |
the bad traits of many of the crew
soon came out The bullies com
menced to haze the quieter men and |
tried to impose on all but the captain
of our mess. A Scotcbman named |
MGregor (which was not his real
name) put a stop to it in our watch |
by seizing one or two ruffians, throw
ing them up till their heels struck
the chrlines. and then dashing them
on the deck, banging the life right
out of them for the time. He didn't |
care snap for the muffs that could
Mt pull their pound, but it annoyed
the rest, and must stop Indeed,
the law between decks was that of
the strongest, and God help the weak
ones; they would have been as well
off III a pirate ship, as no reporting
was allowed.
NJ Gregor was a character He
must have been fifty, but his power
ful frame showed no touch Of age.
Short in stature. he had Antlantean
shoulders, measuring fifty inches
| around the chest, and his grip would
| squeeze the tar out of a rope. His
greatest pleasure was arguing about
| TellSiOu: ue hhS IlSlu SdlNiuiSt.
and the mess watch below reechoed
with the clash of opinions about fate
free will aud free knowledge abso
lute" Language was free, and the
profanity was drerdful; in fact, some
| of the men seemed to have special
gift that way, and one man declared
If he had his own way ''he could cuss
the fiukes off an anchor" Old NJ
Gregor was no doubt a goou speci-
men OF the Scotch Covenanter of the
olden time, but all his religion didn't
prevent him from being the worst
man / ever met,-a cool, remorseless,
determined villain; and he told me
once, with his usual hard, incisive
speech, that he would cut the throat
of his father If enough money was
| forthoomiDu He pavar ayappprata1