The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-05-29


book over into the bay. From that mo.
ment the Kearsarge was the best ship in
the world and her crew the hapniest
afoat.
"Well am spinning long yarn, but
I will get down to the fight, which T SIM
pose you want to hear about. We cruised
about long time after Winslow took
command, but didn't get sight of the AL
ALBANIA, which we We're looking for. At
last, one day, we came off the port of
Cherbourgh, France, and inside was the
Alabama. AS soon as the Kearsarge hove
in sight Semmes knew he would have to
fight lie began stripping his ship for
action and sent down all of his light
spars. Wlnslow began to do the same
thing, and for four or five days we lay
outside waiting until Senlmes should
come out. The Alabama had on board 800
men, and we had only 159. In armament
the Alabama and Kearsarge were evenly
matched. We carried seven guns and
Semmes had eight. Two of ours were
eleven inch Dahlgrens, slaughter house
guns the boys called them, and one one
hundred pound rife besides smaller guns
making seven in all Old Winslow had
hung chains over the sides of the ship a
long time before this so that our boilers
and engines were protected.
Well, on Sunday Semmes turned the
Alabama head seaward and she came
steamlng out to meet us. We were out
side the three mile limit and waited calm
~ for her to come up to us. Semmes was
escorted as far as this by a French iron
clad and lots of small steamers. An
English yacht called the Deerhound kept
on out to sea and was near us all the time
we were fighting. On board the Kear-
sarge every man was at his post and calmly
waited for the ball to commence. Old
Winslow paced up and down the deck and
kept his glass fixed on the Alabama /
was the captain of one. of the big
Dahlgrens, land was very anxious to begin
firing, but Winslow would not allow a
shot to be fired. Up under the top gal
liant forcastle were several men who could
not find q chance to work gun, but who
had a hotter loaded and ready for work
should they get chance. All this time
we were steaming slowly along. 1t was
to be a duel to the death and a case of the
survival of the fittest. On came the Ala
bama, and when she was over a mile
away she began firing at us But though
some of her shots struck us the most of
them flew far over our heads and did us
no harm. Still Winslow would not allow
us to fire and the Alabama had fired one
or two boradsides before we replied,
''Lieut. Thornton was in command of
our piece. He told ME to set my gauge at
such and such height and l protested.
| If [ fire with that gauge says the shot
will fly over her masts. You set the
gauge where 1 tell you, said Thornton.
l did as he ordered and when the word
came to fire my piece the shot went far
over the Alabama.
Commodore Wins low called to Lieut..
Thornton and said something to him.
| When Thornton came back he ordered us
to fire at will, and so 1 set the gauge
where l thought it would reach her and
fired. The shell struck the bulwarks of
the Alabama and lowered my piece.
Again 1 fired and this time the shot
plunged straight through her side. 1
lowered my piece again and fired once
more. This time the shell went through
her wooden sides just above Ethe water
! line and so kept on firing with the other
guns until by and by the blacklist kind of
black smoke began to pour out of her
| stack. Semmes had discovered that we
were armored by the chains and bore
down on us with the intention of board
ing. But Winslow was too foxy for that
and kept the Kearsarge out of the way.
So we began to steam about in wide cir
cles- Every time the big Dahlgrens spoke
we punched a hole in the side of the pi-
rate, and the shot from the Alabama
which struck us did us very little harm.
Our foretopmast back stay was shot away
as was our smoke stack and a sheet an
Choir. The Alabama fired ten shots to our
five, but every one of ours took effect.
| When we saw the black smoke coming
out of her stacks the boys said: She's
going to run for it, But knew that she
was filling with water and that her fires
were being put out. By and by she com
menced to settle down aft and we saw it
was all over and Winslow ordered us to
stop firing But in minute she began
toagive us another broadside and poured
| two more into us without stopping.
Give it to her, shouted Winslow, and we
gave her another broadside. That settled
| it, and her stern commenced to go down
in the water, but she fired few times
at us even after that. Just at this minute
the English yacht came along under our
| stern and hailed us.
''Shall we pick up the crew of that
ship, her captain asked as she went under
our stern.
90 In the name of humanity, yes, Win
| slow shouted.
GAS she went by us I wanted to fire on
her and had the gun trained ON her, and
asked Lieutenant Thornton if I could
take shot at her. She was going to take
our prisoners away from us and we knew
| it but Tornton told me to fire at the
peril of my life so I didn't. If I could
1 III