The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-01-31

found in it a mans boot, and wonder
ed how it come there, no doubt.
We were then close alongside the
ram and passing ahead of her at
rapid rate. We intended to pass ahead
of her far enough to cross her bow we'll
clear of her prov, but she, discerning
what we were at, also put her helm to
port and fell off to StarbOard SO that we
could not cross her bow at once, and
ran side by side with us until in max
ing the circle around her we were both
heading out into the sound. On board
the ram they were no doubt watching
to see when the seine was all payed
out. We had passed ahead of her SO
that she was on our starbOard quarter
and were very near to her, too near for
perfect safety, perhaps, when the end
of the seine was reached, and lacked
less than hundred feet of getting all
the way around her when they saw on
board the ram that the seine was all
out and that there was a chance for
them to get out of the trap we had set
for them. They suddenly put their
helm hard starboard and, being SO
near, made an effort to ram us, and
come very near doing it as have be-
fore mentioned. She was no match
for us in speed, but minded her helm
much quicker than we and when she
thus suddenly changed her course there
was not much space to spare between
our starboard quarter and her ram.
But as soon as we saw her movement
we put our helm hard to starbOard
also and the result was that she just
grazed us and the shifting of our posi-
lions brought us out about ten feet
oh oG How 70 r,nl1 vr
sweeping her decks with grape and
one of which we could bring to bear
on her all the time, besides bullets from
thirty musketS pattering on her ports
all the time, so that they were unable
to open them to fire at u.s. And when
we we're directly ahead of her we held
the position long enough to get two
good shots at her from our after pivot
gun, which threw 64-pound solid shot
We hit her square in the face and at
short range but the shot had no per-
ceptable effect and the Whitehead
coming close to us we sheered off that
she might get A shot at her with her 100
FOUNDER, which she did and the Rebels
afterwards reported that this shot from
the Whitehead did them more damage
than any other one shot during the
fight. And right here we find another
eff useful, if not necessary. If that seine
had been Is OF a 100 feet longer we
should have probably got it entangled
with the rams propeller and in that
event she would have had to stop and
would undoubtedly have been ours.
This was the opinion of Capt Hooke
of the ram, as well as our opinion.
The Whitehead and the Commodore
Hull continued to fight the ram until
she entered the river, directing all our
shots at her stern, hoping to disable
her propeller or her rudder 1t was
now nearly dark and the flag ship signal
ed us to retire, which we did with re-
grets, for we had become convinced
that the rams batteries were disabled
as she had fired but one shot after she
turned to run, and it transpired later
that we had disabled her rudder Capt
Hooke having reported to the Con-
federate Navy officials that the ram
had not proceeded half mile up the
river before the rudder head came off,
as the result of damage by our fire, so
that they were unable to steer her and
had to tie her up to trees on the bank
of the river until the next day. Mean
while her smoke stack had been shot off
close down to her deck and they could
not get up steam for want of draft,
and she had to be lowed into Plymouth
the next day by row boats in very
dilapidated condition. Right here
comes the conjunction again. If the
break in the rudder head of the ram
had occurred twenty minutes sooner
or if the Hull and Whitehead had kept
up the fight for but twenty minutes
more, the result might have been diff
ferent.
Idle regrets are of no value, but
there was a large stock of them on
hand in that fleet that night, and deep
down in our very souls we reiterated
the utterance of the poet in groans of
disappointment:
"For of all sad thoughts of tongue or pen
The saddeSt are these: 1t might have been!''
Well, the fight was over with the ram
Albermarle for time. But the fight
was just on with Capt. Smith and some
of the officers of the Union fleet as to
who was entitled to the most credit
Capt. Smith not only conducted the
fight very badly, but was INSCRIPTIONS
enough to claim that the running of
the seine around the ram was done by
the flagship, when every one knew that
the flagship was not within two miles
of the ram at the time it was done.
What induced him to make such re-
port was past the comprehension of
every officer and man of the fleet, un-
less, it being one of the daring little
things of the fight, and he finding it
popular. wanted the credit at the de-
partment. The report of the Commo-
dore Hull went in also and these two
reports appear in the official records of
the doings of the Navy during the war
of the Rebellion, volume 9, series 1, as
published by acts of congress in 1899.
This report proved boomerang to
Capt. Smith as, knowing this to be un-
true, some other of his reports were
discredited to a certain extent. An
other boomerang was thrown by C. A.
Boutelle, who was an acting master and
sailing master on board the Sassacus,
which ship was in the thick of the
fight for about ten minutes, when she
retired in what was considered sink
ing condition. This was the only fight
Boutelle was in during the war, but he
made it so rebound to his credit that he
not only gained his promotion but it
was his chief stock and trade that made
him Congressman after the war and
subsequently placed him upon the re-
tired list as captain in the Navy. |
am aware that it was reported when he
WAS rptirad that ho no RI ioino od in tho