Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/234

 226 Southern Historical Society

to receive the stipulated commission for his services. The Danish crew were discharged and sent to St. Nazaire, and the ram was chartered and commissioned in due form as the Confederate ship Stonewall.

In the heavy weather after leaving Quiberon Bay, the Stonewall ma.de a good deal of water, and it was thought that she must have sprung a leak some where, but owing to the crowded state of the ship, a satisfactory examination could not be made. This apparent defect was an additional reason for making a harbor, and when the gale moderated, Page bore up and ran into Corunna, and the day after arrival there, he took the Stonewall across the bay to Farrol, "where all facilities were politely tendered by the officers of the Natal arsenal. '*

THE STONEWALL AT FERROL.

The first advice of the Stonewall from Ferrol was without date, but she arrived there about February 2d, and Page soon began to lighten the ship by discharging some of her heavy weight into "a good dry hulk," which the naval authorities had kindly put at her disposal, with the purpose of finding the leak.

It appears, however, from his correspondence, that the facilities granted him upon his first application were quickly withdrawn. Writing to me, under date of February jth, he says : " To-day there came off an officer to inform me that in consequence of the protest of the American minister the permission to repair damages had been suspended, and added, however, that the commander told him that his case was under consideration at Madrid, and that he thought that all would be right in a few days. In the end permission was given to make all necessary repairs, but many difficulties were met with, the authorities appearing to be very desirous to hurry the ship off, yet not willing to turn her out of port in an incomplete state."

On the roth of February, Page wrote that the United States frigate, Niagara, Captain Thomas Craven, had arrived, and a few days after the United States ship Sacramento joined the Niagara, and both vessels anchored at Corunna, about nine miles distance, from whence they could watch the Stonewall. Their presence, Page said, gave the Spanish authorities much uneasiness. It was now manifest that the Stonewall' s movements were known. The two United States ships at Corunna would either attack her when she attempted to leave Ferrol, or they would follow her across the Atlantic.