that she was undoubtedly a tug-boat and the sister ship Chap. XIII. to the Ajar.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, The complaints of some at Nantes. Two were iron-clad rams. 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 4l. 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 Note. "I, Thomas Haines Dudley, of No. 3, Wellesley-terrace, Princes Park, in the Borough of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, Esq., being one of the people called Quakers, affirm and say as follows : "1. I am the Consul of the United States of North America, for the Port of Liverpool and its dependencies. "2. In the month of July, in the year 1861, information was sent by the United States' Government to the United States' Consulate at Liverpool, that a Mr. James D. Bullock, of Savannah, in the State of Georgia, who was formerly the master of an American steamer, called the Cahawba, was reported to have left the United States for England, taking with him a credit for a large sum of money, to be employed in fitting out privateers, and also several commissions issued by the Southern Confederate States for such privateers, and in the month of August in the year 1861, information was sent by the United States' Government to the United States' Consulate at Liverpool, that the said Captain Bullock was then residing near Liverpool, and acting as the agent of the said Confederate States in Liverpool and London. "3. In accordance with instructions received from the Government of the United States, steps have been taken to obtain information as to the proceedings and movements of the said James D. Bullock, and I have ascertained the following circumstances, all of which I verily believe to be true, viz., that the said James D. Bullock is in constant communication with parties in Liverpool, who are known to be connected with, and acting for the parties who have assumed the Government of the Confederate States. That the said James D. Bullock, after remaining for some time in England, left the country, and after an absence of several weeks, returned to Liverpool in the month of March last from Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, one of the seceded States, in a screw-steamer, then called the Annie Childs, which had broken the blockade of the Port of Charleston, then and now maintained by the United States' Navy, and which vessel, the Annie Childs, carried the flag of the Confederate States as she came up the Mersey. That, shortly after the arrival of the said James D. Bullock at Liverpool in the Annie Childs, as above-mentioned, he again sailed from Liverpool in a new gun-boat, called the Oreto, built at Liverpool by Messrs. W. C. Miller and Sons, shipbuilders, and completed in the early part of the present year, and which gun-boat, the Oreto, though she cleared from Liverpool for Palermo and Jamaica, in reality never went to those places, but proceeded to Nassau, New Providence, to take on board guns and arms, with a view to her being used as a privateer or vessel-of-war under a commission from the socalled Confederate Government against the Government of the United States, and which said vessel, the Oreto, is stated to have been lately seized at Nassau by the commander of Her Majesty's ship Greyhound. That the said James D. Bullock has since returned again to Liverpool, Note. and that before he left Liverpool, and since he returned, he has taken Chap. XIII. an active part in superintending the building, equipment, and fitting out of another steam gun-boat, known as 'No. 290,' which has lately been launched by Messrs. Laird and Co., of Birkenhead, and which is now lying, as I am informed and believe, ready for sea in the Birkenhead Docks, with a large quantity of provisions and stores, and thirty men on board. That the said James D. Bullock is going out in the said gun-boat 'No. 290,' which is nominally commanded by one Matthew S. Butcher, who, I am informed, is well acquainted with the navigation of the American coast, having formerly been engaged in the coasting trade between New York, Charleston, and Nassau. "4. From the circumstances which have come to my knowledge, I verily believe that the said gun-boat 'No. 290' is being equipped and fitted out as a privateer or vessel of war to serve under a commission to be issued by the Government of the so-called Confederate States, and that the said vessel will be employed in the service of the said Confederate States to cruise and commit hostilities against the Government and people of the United States of North America. "I, Matthew Maguire, of Liverpool, agent, make oath, and say as follows: "1. I know Captain J. D. Bullock, who is commonly reputed to be the Agent or Commissioner of the Confederate States of America at Liverpool. "2. I have seen the said J. D. Bullock several times at the yard of Messrs. Laird and Co., at Birkenhead, where a gun-boat, known as 'No. 290,' has lately been built, whilst the building of the said vessel has been going on. "3. On the 2nd day of July now instant, I saw the said J. D. Bullock on board the said vessel in Messrs. Laird and Co.'s yard; he appeared to be giving orders to the workmen who were employed about such vessel. |