Mr. Deal and there took a small boat from the shore, and, with the cook, who was with me, went on board the Sea King the same day. When I got on board the Sea King, I found her under the command of Peter S. Corbett, the captain who engaged me. Essmand was first officer and Mr. Smith second officer. Mr. Wright, the owner of the vessel, was also on board at the time, but left soon after I reached the vessel. We then made steam and sail, and went as fast as they would carry us until we got out of the Channel. We then shortened sail and put her under double-reefed topsails, and hoisted up the screw, and put the fires out in the furnaces, and made toward the Island of Madeira under easy sail. We remained in this way for five days, until Monday morning, the 17th of October, when the fires were again lighted in the furnaces, the screw lowered, and the vessel put under steam. That evening we were off Madeira. We beat on and off during the night. In the morning we went up off the town, and signalled a small steamer lying at anchor with her steam up. I could see this at the time. She answered the signal, and came immediately out to us, and proved to be the Laurel. She took the lead, and we followed her to the Island of Porto Santo. The Laurel anchored within a quarter of a mile from the shore, in seventeen fathoms water. We came up to her. She immediately gave us the soundings, and told us to let go our anchor and she would draw up to us. We did so, and she came up alongside and made fast to us fore and aft. This was about 2 o'clock, on Tuesday, the 18th October, 1864. We were then ordered by Captain Corbett to get tackling aloft, and to prepare for hoisting in large cases from the steamer Laurel. I, with all hands, assisted in this. We then commenced taking in from the Laurel guns, gun-carriages, shot, shell, powder, clothing, goods, &c. We took in six guns, four 68-pounders and two 32-pounders, with carriages to mount them on the deck of the Sea King. There were a very large quantity of shot and shell, and some fifty or sixty barrels of powder. There were also three or four small brass swivel-guns-I should say 3-pounders or 4-pounders -and a great many cases and bales of clothing, goods, &c., and many cases marked "Glass, with care." I do not know what they contained. The last thing we took in was a safe, very heavy. Captain Corbett, of the Sea King, and his officers, and Captain Ramsey, of the steamer Laurel, superintended and assisted in the transfer of the armament from one vessel to the other. We continued working until 2 o'clock on Wednesday morning, when we were knocked off for two hours' rest. We went at it again, and continued until about 10 o'clock, when we finished. During the whole of this time the Sea King remained at anchor within a quarter of a mile from the shore. The fires were kept in the furnaces, and steam up on both vessels, from the time we arrived at Porto Santo until we left. About one hour after we came to anchor, Mr. Essmand, the first officer of the Sea King, came to me and told me to have one of the shackle-pins started, and ready to slip the cable at a moment's notice. I did so, and I had it all in readiness during the whole of the time we were there. The Sea King had two guns on board mounted on her decks when she left London; they were about 12-pounders. She had also a very large quantity of provisions and about 700 tons of coal. After we had finished taking in the things from the Laurel, the mate came and called all hands aft, and said the captain wanted to see us. We all went and gathered [489] *round the cabin-doors, and Captain Corbett came out and said, "Well, men, I have sold the ship to the confederates; she is to belong to their navy to be a cruiser, to burn and destroy merchant-vessels and whalers in particular. She is not to fight, but merely to take prizes, and there will be a first-rate chance for any of you young men who will stop by the vessel, and I should advise you all to do it." The general reply made by the men was that we did not want anything to do with her. The new captain then came out of the cabin and asked if we would not join. He was dressed in a gray uniform. Captain Corbett introduced the man when he came out as the American officer who was to have the command of the ship, but did not mention his name; said he would pay the seamen £4 per month and £10 bounty. One of the engineers, one of the firemen, and two of the seamen consented to join, and took the bounty and signed the articles. The officer in uniform, when he came out to us, announced that the Sea King was now the Shenandoah, of the confederate navy. Liquor had been served among the men during the time we were making the transfer in profusion. Some were under its influence. It was brought round twice after we got through and offered to the men. They made great efforts to induce the men to join. They raised the wages to £7 and £15 bounty for able seamen. They offered me £16 a month and £15 bounty. I declined to accept it or to stop with them on any terms. A bucket of sovereigns was brought out on the deck to tempt the men to join. A portion of the crew of the Laurel joined. The person whom Captain Corbett introduced to us as the commander of the Shenandoah came out on the Laurel. There were a number of others who also came out on the Laurel; I should say about forty. We left them on board the Shenandoah. Some were acting as officers. One of them, pointing at the commander, who was standing on the deck, said he was Captain Semmes. The chief engineer of the Laurel, who came to Liverpool with us, also told me while we were coming home that it was Captain Semmes who had taken command, and that they had taken him out with them in the Laurel. Captain Corbett came out H. Ex. 282- -48 of the cabin and told us he was off, and bid us follow him. We took our things and went on the Laurel with him. They were then unfastened. A bark at the time was running down the island. We steamed out and met her with the Laurel, leaving the Sea King where she was. The bark raised the English ensign. When we saw this we took a sweep round her and went back to the Sea King, or Shenandoah, and told her it was all right. We remained for about three hours after this, waiting for the dispatches from the Shenandoah. They were brought to us in the Laurel's boat about twenty minutes before we left, and after the bark had gone round the corner of the island the Shenandoah hoisted the confederate flag, and the Laurel hoisted the English. These flags remained flying until the vessels got out of sight. She seemed to be going to the west when we last saw her, and we stood for Teneriffe. The steamer Laurel was in command, during the time, of Captain Ramsey. We arrived at Teneriffe on Friday, the 21st October. We were not permitted to go on shore or any boats allowed alongside until Saturday, and until after she had coaled. After she had coaled, got up her steam, and was ready to sail, we were permitted to land. Within an hour after we left her she was out of sight. The men were told before they left the Laurel that if any one asked us after we got on shore where we were from, that we must tell them that we were distressed British seamen and had lost our ship. Some of the men made a complaint to the British consul at Teneriffe, but I did not do so. Captain Corbett paid my board at Teneriffe, and my passage home to Liverpool on the English steamer Calabar, which arrived here on Friday morning last, and did the same for the other men. The officers, including the captain who went out in the Sea King, except one of the engineers, came to England with us. Captain Corbett offered to pay us two months' extra wages and to pay our expenses back to England before we left the Sea King. This was after we had refused to join. We declined to take this, and he then said he would bring us back to England, and what the law would allow us we would get. After we had arrived in Liverpool the first mate told us they would settle with us the next day at 11 o'clock, at the Sailors' Home in Liverpool. We went at the time, and one of Mr. Wright's clerks (the owner of the Sea King) was there, and, with the first mate, made out the accounts. They offered us all three months' extra wages if we would sign clear of the ship. Some took this at once. I refused at the time, but agreed this morning to receive it. They paid me £19 178., and I signed clear of the vessel. Mr. Wright's clerk paid me the money. The Sea King was under the English flag when she left London, and so remained until we left her and went on board the Laurel. The Laurel remained under the English flag all the time, or at least until she landed us at Teneriffe. Captain Corbett and Captain Ramsey are both British subjects. The officers who took out both the Sea King [490] and Laurel were also all British subjects. The men who enlisted from the Sea King and those who enlisted from the Laurel to serve on the Shenandoah were also all British subjects. (Signed) JOHN WILSON. J. PEARSON, Sworn and subscribed to before me this 14th day of November, 1864. (Signed) A Commissioner to Administer Oaths, &c. No. 9. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, November 19, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th instant, inclosing copies of a letter from the United States consul at Liverpool and the depositions of two men who lately formed part of the crew of the steamer Sea King. December 1, 1864. (Received December 1.) MY LORD: We are honored with your lordship's commands signified Further opinion of law-officers. in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 19th ultimo, stating that, with reference to our report of the 15th November, he was directed by your lordship to transmit to us a letter from Mr. Adams, inclosing copies of the depositions of two men who lately formed part of the crew of the Sea King, and to request that we would take these papers into our consideration and favor your lordship with such observations as we might have to offer thereupon. Mr. Hammond was also pleased to state that we should observe from the accompanying draught of a letter to the treasury that the lords commissioners have been requested to instruct their solicitor to take the depositions and to proceed in this case in other respects in the manner recommended in our report, and that a dispatch of Mr. Consul Grattan was also inclosed. In obedience to your lordship's commands, we have taken these papers into our consideration, and have the honor to report That, in our opinion, the depositions now forwarded by Mr. Adams are sufficient to prove that Captain Corbett did, in this country, engage and procure the deponents to serve as sailors on board the Sea King, which ship, from the whole of the evidence in the case, we infer to have been then a vessel intended by him to be used (after she should have been taken to the Azores) in the confederate service. These facts raise questions similar to those which were involved in the cases of the seamen on board the Georgia and Rappahannock, except that none of these particular deponents accepted the confederate service when the true object of the voyage was disclosed to them. Those questions upon the construction of the act are not free from difficulty, but in some of the other cases convictions have been obtained and submitted to, and we think that, even if there were no other point arising upon his acts when he handed over the ship to her confederate commander, it would be proper, upon this evidence, that Captain Corbett should Captain Corbett to be prosecuted for a violation of the second section of the be prosecuted. act, by procuring, or attempting to procure, these men, and others unknown, to serve and be employed, &c., or to go and embark from Liverpool, for the purpose or with intent to serve or to be employed, &c., contrary to that section. We further think, on more deliberate consideration, that if the Sea King ought to be deemed (as prima facie we think she may be) to have been still a British ship when Captain Corbett endeavored to induce the men on board her to accept the confederate service, the question whether her deck was not then "a place belonging or subject to Her Majesty" is a serious one, which ought also to be raised by the indictment. In our former report we stated that we did not think a British merchant-ship at sea was included within Her Majesty's "domin ions," in the sense of the act; but in the second clause there [491] are also the other and larger words above noticed, to which we did not then advert, and which might, perhaps, receive a more extensive construction. We have, &c., ROUNDELL PALMER. No. 11. Mr. Hammond to Mr. Waddington. FOREIGN OFFICE, December 2, 1864. SIR: With reference to my letter of the 15th instant, I am directed by Earl Russell to transmit to you a copy of a note from Mr. Adams,1 inclosing copies of a letter from the United States consul at Liverpool and of the depositions of two seamen on board of the steamer Sea King, who have returned to this country. I am also to transmit to you a copy or a report from the law-officers of the Crown,2 stating that they are of opinion that it would be proper upon the evidence thus furnished, that Captain Corbett should be prosecuted for a violation of the foreign enlistment act. I am accordingly to request that you will lay these papers before Secretary Sir G. Grey, and move him to give directions for the immediate prosecution of Captain Corbett, in conformity with the law-officers' opinion; and I am to suggest that as the depositions which were sent me by Her Majesty's consul at Tenerifle were forwarded in original to the treasury, Sir G. Grey should obtain from that department any of those papers which may be required for the prosecution, as well as any further evidence which may have been collected by the solicitor of the treasury, in conformity with the recommendation of the law-officers, contained in their report of the 15th ultimo. I am, &c., E. HAMMOND. No. 12. Earl Russell to Lord Lyons. FOREIGN OFFICE, December 8, 1864. MY LORD: I transmit herewith, for your information, a copy of a dispatch from Her Majesty's consul at Teneriffe,3 stating the circumstances under which the steamship Sea King has come into possession of officers of the Confederate States. I have at the same time to acquaint you that Her Majesty's government took immediate steps, on the arrival in England of the men referred to in Mr. Consul Grattan's dispatch, who had formed part of the crew of the Sea King, to make an investigation into the circumstances of the case; and that, under the advice of the law-officers of the Crown, Her Majesty's government have given directions that Captain Corbett shall be prosecuted for violation of the foreign-enlistment act.* I am, &c., 1 No. 8. 2 No. 10, 3 No. 1. RUSSELL. 4 Captain Corbett was committed for trial at Bow street, January 5, 1865, and tried at the court of Queen's bench, November 29 to December 1. of "not guilty."-Daily News, January 6; Times, November ber 2, 1865. The jury found a verdict 30; Daily News, Decem Clearance and specification of cargo of Laurel from Liverpool; Clearance of Laure). and registry and shipping articles of Sea King. No. 7. CONTENT. Official No. 47819. Port No. 111. October 24, 1864. I certify that the above and within is a correct copy of the customs clearance of the Laurel, for Matamoras, &c., cleared 8th October, 1864. (Signed) W. O. TWEED, Principal Clerk, Bill of Entry Office. British goods and foreign goods free of duty, and foreign goods not for drawback: Sundry packages British and foreign goods free of duty. Cleared Dated October, 1864. Examined. H. LAFONE, ROBERT M. GREEN, I do declare that the above content is a true account of all goods shipped or intended to be shipped on board the above-named ship, and correct in all other particulars, and that all the requirements of the act 17 and 18 Victoria, cap. 104, have been duly complied with. (Signed) Signed and declared this 8th day of October, 1864, before me. (Signed) Examined, A. WALL, 12th September, 1871. J. F. RAMSEY, Master. J. MONKHOUSE, H. LAFONE. Pro GEO. RIND, R. M. WILLIAMS. |