that she was undoubtedly a tug-boat and the sister ship Chap, XIII, to the Ajax.1 Prosecutions for procuring Men to serve in Confederate Ships. Five prosecutions were instituted at different times against persons charged with having enlisted or engaged 1 The story of a ship of many names-the Sphinx, Stoer Kodder, Olinde, or Stonewall-may be fitly mentioned here, although she was neither built nor armed in Great Britain, and never found her way into any British port. The Sphinx was one of six vessels which Captain Bullock, when he found himself foiled in England by the seizure of the Alexandra and the two iron-clads, had ordered in France. In France a company was formed for the express purpose of selling ships-of-war to the Confederates, and at the head of it was a great shipbuilder of Bordeaux, who was an active member of the Chamber of Deputies. The six ships were built, some at Bordeaux, some at Nantes. Two were iron-clad rams. The complaints of Mr. Dayton induced the French Government to institute an inquiry. M. Arman denied indignantly the charge alleged against him, but the French Government finally decided on cancelling the permission to arm these ships which it had previously given. Five of the vessels were ultimately sold by the builders to the Governments of Prussia, Sweden, and Peru. One iron-clad, the Sphinx, which remained, was offered to Denmark, and actually sent, as the Stoer Kodder, under the French flag to Copenhagen; whence, the Danish Government refusing to take her, she returned under Danish colours to the Breton coast, there took on board some coal sent from St. Nazaire, and arms and men (part of the crew of the Florida) from England, and went to sea as the Confederate steamer Olinde, a name subsequently exchanged for the Stonewall. She first made for Lisbon, where she met with two Federal cruisers. From these she escaped by the enforcement of the rule of twenty-four hours, found her way to Havana, and at the close of the war fell into the hands of the Government of the United States, by whom she was disposed of-at a rather high price, it was said to the Mikado of Japan. The Government of the United States brought an action against M. Arman to recover the money which had been paid to him by Bullock, and a further sum for damages. His proceedings, coupled with his position as a member of the Chamber, had raised, it was alleged, the hopes of the Confederates, and had tended to drive. American shipping from the sea. The injury thus occasioned was estimated at 2,800,000 francs. I do not know what was the fate of this singular demand. Note. Chap. XIII. men for the naval service of the Confederate States. Of these three were successful. Five of the accused were convicted, or pleaded guilty. Two persons, whom it was intended to prosecute for having induced men to join the Rappahannock, saved themselves by absconding. In every case in which men belonging to the Naval Reserve could be traced as entering the Confederate service, their names were struck off the list. No prosecution appears to have been instituted against Bullock himself, nor does there appear to have been evidence that he actually infringed the law. These are the facts connected with the equipment, or alleged equipment, of Confederate ships-of-war in British ports. In the next Chapter I shall give an account of the international questions to which these facts gave rise. NOTE. Affidavits laid before the Board of Customs and before the Secretary of No. 1. "I, William Passmore, of Birkenhead, in the County of Chester, Mariner, make oath, and say as follows: "1. I am a seaman, and have served as such on board Her Majesty's ship Terrible during the Crimean war. "2. Having been informed that hands were wanted for a fighting vessel built by Messrs. Laird and Co., of Birkenhead, I applied on Saturday, which was, I believe, the 21st day of June last, to Captain Butcher, who, I was informed, was engaging men for the said vessel, for a berth on board her. "3. Captain Butcher asked me if I knew where the vessel was going, in reply to which I told him I did not rightly understand about it. He then told me vessel was going out to the Government of the Confederate States of America. I asked him if there would be any fighting, to which he replied, 'Yes; they were going to fight for the Southern Government.' I told him I had been used to fighting vessels, and showed him my papers. I asked him to make me signal-man on Chap. XIII. board the vessel, and in reply he said that no articles would be signed until the vessel got outside, but he would make me signal-man, if they required one, when they got outside. "4. The said Captain Butcher then engaged me as an able seaman on board the said vessel at the wages of 41. 10s. per month; and it was arranged that I should join the ship in Messrs. Laird and Co.'s yard on the following Monday. To enable me to get on board, Captain Butcher gave me a password, the number '290.' "5. On the following Monday, which was, I believe, the 23rd day of June last, I joined the said vessel in Messrs. Laird and Co.'s yard at Birkenhead, and I remained by her till Saturday last. "6. The said vessel is a screw steamer of about 1,100 tons burden, as far as I can judge, and is built and fitted up as a fighting ship in all respects; she has a magazine and shot and canister racks on deck, and is pierced for guns, the sockets for the bolts of which are laid down. The said vessel has a large quantity of stores and provisions on board, and she is now lying at the Victoria Wharf in the Great Float at Birkenhead, where she has taken in about 300 tons of coal. "7. There are now about thirty hands on board her, who have been engaged to go out in her; most of them are men who have previously served on board fighting ships; and one of them is a man who served on board the Confederate steamer Sumter. It is well known by the hands on board that the vessel is going out as a privateer for the Confederate Government to act against the United States under a commission from Mr. Jefferson Davis. Three of the crew are, I believe, engineers; and there are also some firemen on board. "8. Captain Butcher and another gentleman have been on board the ship almost every day. It is reported on board the ship that Captain Butcher is to be the sailing-master, and that the other gentleman, whose name, I believe, is Bullock, is to be the fighting captain. "9. To the best of my information and belief, the above-mentioned vessel, which I have heard is to be called the Florida, is being equipped and fitted out in order that she may be employed in the service of the Confederate Government in America to cruise and commit hostilities against the Government and people of the United States of America. Note. No. 2. "I, John de Costa, of No. 8, Waterloo-road, Liverpool, Shipping Master, make oath, and say as follows: "1. I know, and have for several months known, by sight Captain Chap. XIII. Bullock, who is very generally known in Liverpool as an Agent or Commissioner of the Confederate States in America. Note. "2. In the month of March last I saw the screw-steamer Annie Childs, which had run the blockade from Charleston, enter the River Mersey. She came up the Mersey with the Confederate flag flying at her peak; and I saw the Oreto, a new gun-boat which had been recently built by Messrs. W. C. Miller and Sons, and which was then lying at anchor in the river off Egremont, dip her colours three times in acknowledgment of the Annie Childs, which vessel returned the compliment, and a boat was immediately afterwards despatched from the Annie Childs to the Oreto with several persons on board, besides the men who were at the oars. "3. On the 22nd day of March last I was on the North Landing Stage between 7 and 8 o'clock in the morning; I saw the said Captain Bullock go on board a tender, which afterwards took him off to the said gun-boat Oreto, which was then lying in the Sloyne. Just before he got on board the tender, he shook hands with a gentleman who was with him, and said to him, 'This day six weeks you will get a letter from me from Charleston,' or words to that effect. "4. On the same day, between 11 and 12 o'clock, as well as I can remember, I saw the Oreto go to sea. She came well in on the Liverpool side of the river, and from the Princes Pier Head where I was standing, I distinctly saw the said Captain Bullock on board her, with a person who had been previously pointed out to me by a fireman who came to Liverpool in the Annie Childs as a Charleston pilot, who had come over in the Annie Childs with Captain Bullock to take the gun-boat out. "I, Allan Stanley Clare, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Articled Clerk, make oath, and say as follows: "1. On the 21st day of July now instant, I examined the book at the Birkenhead Dockmaster's Office at Birkenhead, containing a list of all vessels which enter the Birkenhead Docks; and I found in such book an entry of a vessel described as 'No. 290,' and from the entries in the said book, in reference to such vessel, it appears that she is a screwsteamer, and that her registered tonnage is 500 tons, and that Matthew J. Butcher is her master. No. 4. "We, Henry Wilding, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, and Matthew Maguire, of Liverpool, aforesaid, Agent, make oath and say as follows: "1. I, the said Matthew Maguire, for myself, say that on the 15th day of July now instant, I took Richard Brogan, whom I know to be an apprentice, working in the ship-building yard of Messrs. Laird and Co., at Birkenhead, to the above-named deponent, Henry Wilding, at his residence at New Brighton. "2. And I, the said Henry Wilding, for myself, say as follows:I am the Vice-Consul of the United States of North America, at Liverpool. "3. On the 15th day of July, now instant, I saw the said Richard Brogan, and examined him in reference to a gun-boat which I had heard was being built by the said Messrs. Laird and Co. for the so-called Confederate Government, and the said Richard Brogan then informed me that the said vessel was built to carry four guns on each side, and four swivel guns; that Captain Bullock had at one time, when the vessel was in progress, come to the yard almost every day to select the timber to be used for the vessel. That the said Captain Bullock was to be the Captain of the said vessel, and that the said Captain Bullock had asked the said Richard Brogan to go as carpenter's mate in the said vessel for three years, which the said Richard Brogan had declined to do, because Mr. Laird, who was present at the time, would not guarantee his wages. That the said vessel was to carry 120 men, and that 30 able seamen were already engaged for her. That the petty officers for the said vessel were to be engaged for three years, and the seamen for five months. That the said vessel was then at the end of the new warehouses in the Birkenhead Dock, and that it was understood she was to take her guns on board at Messrs. Laird and Co.'s shed further up the dock; and that it was generally understood by the men in Messrs. Laird and Co.'s yard, that the said vessel was being built for the Confederate Government. "4. The vessel above-mentioned is the same which is now known as 'No. 290,' and I verily believe that the said vessel is in fact intended to be used as a privateer or vessel-of-war, under a commission from the so-called Confederate Government, against the United States' Govern ment. (Signed) "H. WILDING. "MATTHEW MAGUIRE." Chap. XIII. |