e put aboard
three of the whalers, and the eight empty ships were set afire. It was
a grand spectacle. On every side were the towering icebergs, whose
glassy sides reflected the lurid glare from the burning ships. Great
black volumes of smoke arose from the blazing oil into the clear blue
northern sky. The ruined men crowded upon the three whalers saw the
fruits of their years of labor thus destroyed in an afternoon, and
heaped curses upon the heads of the men who had thus robbed them. What
wonder if, in the face of such apparently wanton destruction as this,
they overlooked the niceties of the law of war, and called their
captors pirates! Yet for the men of the "Shenandoah" it was no
pleasant duty to thus cruise about the world, burning and destroying
private property, and doing warfare only against unarmed people. More
than one has left on record his complaint of the utter unpleasantness
of the duty; but all felt that they were aiding the cause for which
their brothers at home were fighting, and so they went on in their
work of destruction.

For two months more Waddell continued his depredations in the northern
seas. Many a stout bark from New London or New Bedford fell a prey to
his zeal for a cause that was even then lost. For the Confederacy had
fallen. The last volley of the war had been discharged three months
before. Of this Capt. Waddell was ignorant, and his warlike operations
did not end until the captain of a British bark told him of the
surrender of Lee and Johnston, and the end of the war. To continue his
depredations longer would be piracy: so Capt. Waddell hauled down his
Confederate flag, and heading for Liverpool surrendered his ship to
the British authorities, by whom it was promptly transferred to the
United States. So ended the last of the Confederate privateers.

[Illustration: "Shenandoah" burning Whalers.]

CHAPTER XII.

WORK OF THE GULF SQUADRON. -- THE FIGHT AT THE PASSES OF THE
MISSISSIPPI. -- DESTRUCTION OF THE SCHOONER "JUDAH." -- THE
BLOCKADE OF GALVESTON, AND CAPTURE OF THE "HARRIET LANE."

The naval forces of the United States during the war may be roughly
classified as the Atlantic fleets, the river navy, and the Gulf
squadron. The vessels comprising the latter detachment enjoyed some
light service during the opening months of the war; but, as the time
went on, the blue-jackets of the Gulf squadron found that they had no
reason to congratulate themselves on s