rished with the yellow fever, then prevailing in
Bermuda.

We sailed from St. George's for Wilmington November 15th, showing our
colors to several vessels on the way, all of which carried a foreign
flag. American colors had for a long time become a rare sight upon the
ocean, except when flying from the peak of a man-of-war. All of the
vessels captured by the Chickamauga were either coasters, or traders to
West India ports, and were scarcely off soundings on the American
coast.[15] The Alabama and Florida had demonstrated what a vast amount
of injury might be inflicted upon an enemy's commerce by a few swift
cruisers; and there is no doubt that this number might have been
increased to any reasonable extent, by proper management. No sensible
individual, I presume, really attaches any importance to the ravings of
a portion of the Northern press, during the war, against the "rebel
pirates," and their depredations upon commerce. To destroy merchant
vessels was not a pleasure, but it was a duty, and a matter of
necessity, seeing that the Confederate ports were so closely blockaded
as to render it absolutely impossible to send the prizes in for
adjudication, and that all of the foreign powers prohibited the sending
of captured vessels into their ports. The officers and crews attached to
these "piratical vessels" would very gladly have carried or sent their
prizes into a Confederate port; for in that case they would have been
equally fortunate with their confreres of the United States Navy, whose
pockets were filled to repletion with the proceeds of captured property
belonging to Confederates, on land and sea.

We approached the coast in very thick weather on the night of the 18th.
We could dimly discern the breakers ahead, and close aboard; but it was
impossible to distinguish any landmark in so dense a fog. A boat was
lowered therefore, and one of the bar pilots sent to examine nearer, but
he returned on board in the course of an hour, with the report that he
had pulled close in to the surf, but could recognize no object on the
shore, although he had rowed some distance parallel to it, and as
closely as he could venture. "Did you see no wrecks on the beach?" I
inquired. "Yes, sir," he replied, "I saw three." "And how were they
lying?" I asked. He stated that two of them were "broadside on" to the
beach, and close together; and the third "bows on" to the beach, about a
cable's length to the north of them. I was satisfied abou