Year: 1877

that; afore we got the word that the er. zine was ready, she struck aft, @ half doz- en time. If the old man had funked and bothered them engineers, we'd a been gone sartin; but he kep' cool, and waited till the engineer came up for the third time and said. All ready, sir, you may go ahead Then old Steele ringed to go ahead slow and giv' the word to heave up. That were tight squeak, sir, as ever l seen. When we got off into deep water we stopped her agin, and the engineer re- paired his damage permanently.

 ''Then we started in agin, cause in we be to go that night or else we'd have to go back for coal. We'll. just at dark we sighted man-of-war, and the pilot thought it were blockading vessel off the mouth of the Brazos river, twixt Calves ton Island and the main land. We'll. we steers along northeast by east in quarter less three. runnin' up for the bar. All of a suddint the man in the chains sung out, Port! hard port! and as her head swung of. sure enough, heee we was olose1 aboard of a man. war. We seen her lights and heard em call to quarters: We keeps the helm hard port and went com pletely round till we headed in shore, and then steadled and run inside of him. That way we euchered him, cause he never dreamed of our going inside, but thought w'd pass outside of him He didn't fire, cause he lost sight of us SO fast. Well, in about twenty minutes more we found our selves right in among the fleet. They seen us too, and in an instant the whole race of creation was lighted up: the guns were firin' on every side, and the shot and shell was whistlin' around us like hail. stones. Why we didn't git hit don't know; the Cherub were lookin' out for us that night and no mistake. Twice shots struck the water near enough to send the spray splashing over us us, and once round shot cut off one of the smoke-stack guys. but wasn't never hulled.

 If UuI Pilot Lssa boon worth hie salt, w'd have gone on in spite of the fusillade, but he giv' it up and lost his head, and as the old man didn't know the way in, head southeast and let her bile full speed off shore. The man in thu chains kep' 8 givln' three fathoms,' or land half three, and we didn't seem to deepen. I steps into the chart room, where the old man were takin' the bearins, SO as he could run her in hisself in the mornin, seein' as how the pilot wer'nt no good, and says to him, Captain Steele, were 8 runnin' southeast and we don't deepen our water. Don't deepen our water, MT. Wood, says he, why you must deep en; stop her and get good sound. l guess she's deepenin'. she must be- I went on deck and told the mate and he stopped her, and I goes to the chains and takes the lead and sure enough we had five fathoms. I tell you this to show how little dependence could be placed on any body. Men lost their heads, and there wern't no trustin' of 'em. The only man as didn't funk or get excited, were tae skipper. don't hesitate to say, sir, as almost any other man would have you back to Havana for coal, but this here old man he determined to run back into that there hornets nest we'd iist left, and run through 'em himself in the daytime, the only time when he could take her in.

 "We slowed her round once more, and pinted her for the beach, and then run it up till the pilot said he was up with Fort Magruder, and we would be onto the mid dle.ground If we went any further, so we anchored her to wait for daylight. Just afore the day broke we got the anchor and started ahead. The old pilot was very much excited, and giv' the order to 'Go ahead, full speed;' but the old man said, Nonsense, We can't go full speed here in this shoal water; the ship won't steer; let her go slow, and take it easy, pilot

 'Half mint arter this, we makes a launch under the port bow and had to port bit to clear her. She had gun on the bow, and was filled with men, and why she didn't fire on us don't know. Perhaps the officer in command of her thought best to let us go unmolested, seein that we was runnin' straight into the middle of the fleet and with an almost certainty of capture. The day had now broke and here we. was, inside of the blockadin' fleet. It was death or glory now. for the old man was bound to go in. In fact, to have turned back would have been almost dangerous, for we were with in range of the whole fleet. The first ship let us pass. thinkin'. I suppose. .kt that we might be Yankee gunboat jist arrived. In fact. the second boat was in doubt, and hoisted a lot of colors. You see, sir, they couldn't believe that any man would be foolhardy enough to run in among 'em in the daytime, as we was doin' of. We'll, of course. we couldn't reply to the signals, and the next we seen was 8 little puff of smoke, and ricochet shot came skipping over the water, and bounded over us. Then the next ship took it up, and then the whole fleet. and the shot and shell be- gin to fly around us like hell. Lucky for us there were heavy sea on, and this splled their aim. Some shots went over us and some fell short. The old man took it as cool as a cucumber; he stopped onto the bridge. and 1 were there, too. The old pilot was layin' fiat on his face on the bridge, and were in mortal terror.

 You know aboard ship, sir, the fust thing arter daylight. all hands has their coffee, and the old man called for his that mornin' ,jist as if there hadn't been a man. of-war within thousand miles. It were brung to him on waiter by little color ed boy, ,and jist as he gifts onto the bridge with it shell bust right alongside, and 8 piece of it flew over the bridge, taking the waiter clean out of the boys hand, but never touching him.

 "Go git some more, Sam, says the old man; I must have my coffee. '"

 The pilot was no further use; the old man got his chart upon the bridge and run her hisself. There is two channels in, the bar channel and the the beach channel, and to keep as far as possi ble from the feet we had to skim along the edge of the Middle Ground and enter the bar channel; but there was 8 little boat called the Princess Royal, that had been blockade'run and was now a gum boat, had come up so close to us that to avoid her shot We had to try to cut of piece of the Middle Ground, and while doing this we struck the bottom. I thought it were all up with us then, and somebody sung out for to stop her, but the old man sings out, mo, no; don't stop. Go ahead full power. and a sea liftin' us jist then, away we went over and into the channel. Previous to this both of our masts had been shot away; we had two holes through our smoke-stack, but the worst were over now, cause we had to turn our starn to the fire instead of the broadslde, and in the deep water of the channel we could go full speed. Up to this time, the flagship hadn't opened onto us. but now, as there seemed possibility of our escapin' ,she let us have boardside, and won't forget in hurry the size of the pills she sent after us. One R