in the
East India trade. She was large, fast, and strongly built; and the
astute agent of the Confederacy knew, when he saw her lying in a
Liverpool dock, that she was just calculated for a privateer. She was
purchased by private parties, and set sail, carrying a large stock of
coal and provisions, but no arms. By a strange coincidence, a second
vessel left Liverpool the same day, carrying several mysterious
gentlemen, who afterwards proved to be Confederate naval officers. The
cargo of this second vessel consisted almost entirely of remarkably
heavy cases marked "machinery." The two vessels, once out of English
waters, showed great fondness for each other, and proceeded together
to a deserted, barren island near Madeira. Here they anchored side by
side; and the mysterious gentlemen, now resplendent in the gray and
gold uniform of the Confederacy, stepped aboard the "Shenandoah." Then
the cases were hoisted out of the hold of the smaller vessel; and,
when the "machinery" was mounted on the gun-deck of the "Shenandoah,"
it proved to be a number of very fine steel-rifled cannon. Then the
crew was mustered on the gun-deck, and informed that they were manning
the new Confederate ship "Shenandoah;" and with a cheer the flag was
hoisted at the peak, and the newly created ship-of-war started off in
search of merchantmen to make bonfires of. From Madeira the cruiser
made for the Southern Ocean,--a fresh field not yet ravaged by any
Confederate vessel. This made the hunting all the better for the
"Shenandoah," and she burned vessels right and left merrily. In the
spring of 1865, she put into the harbor of Melbourne, Australia, where
her officers were lavishly entertained by the citizens. Thence she
proceeded to the northward, spending some time in the Indian Ocean,
and skirting the Asiatic coast, until she reached Behrings Straits.
Here she lay in wait for returning whalers, who in that season were
apt to congregate in Behrings Sea in great numbers, ready for the long
voyage around Cape Horn to their home ports on the New England coast.
Capt. Waddell was not disappointed in his expectations, for he reached
the straits just as the returning whalers were coming out in a body.
One day he captured eleven in a bunch. With one-third his crew
standing at the guns ready to fire upon any vessel that should attempt
to get up sail, Waddell kept the rest of his men rowing from ship to
ship, taking off the crews. Finally all the prisoners wer