Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/258

244 no magazine for powder or shell room for shell provided. All was hurriedly transferred and in a lumbering, confused mass was on board. Every particle of work, of bringing order out of chaos and providing for efficiently putting everything in a condition for service, and of converting this ship into an armed cruiser at sea, amidst wind and storm, if encountered, stared us in the face.

The entertained and expressed hopes, that from the two crews a sufficient force would be induced to volunteer, were disappointed. Only nineteen men volunteered, which, with the twenty-three officers, made forty-two men for this stupendous work, and to man and care for a ship whose crew, with her battery, etc., as a cruiser, should be at least 150 men.

Captain Waddell, though brave and courageous, accustomed as a naval officer, to step on the deck of a man-of-war fully fitted and equipped at a navy-yard, where every facility aided to make everything perfect, was naturally discomforted and appalled. He conferred with Captain Corbett, late commander, and Lieutenant Ramsay, Confederate States Navy, who commanded the consort Laurel, both experienced seamen, and he told me that they both said they considered his taking the ocean, in such a condition, and so shorthanded, impracticable. As his executive officer, he naturally consulted me, saying that it was his judgment that he should take the ship to Teneriffe, communicate with Captain Bulloch and have a crew sent to him. I knew every one of the regular officers personally. They were all "to the manner born."

With the fate of the C. S. S. Rappahannock (which about a year before had gone into Calais, France, for some such object, had been held there inactive ever since) before me, and a positive conviction that our fate would be the same and result in ignominious failure, I strenuously advised against it. I said, "Don't confer, sir, with parties who are not going with us. Call your young officers together and learn from their assurances what they can and will do." They were called together; there was but one unanimous sentiment from each and every one, "take the ocean," and so it was, be it ever said with credit to them, and to the zeal and courage of the now lamented Waddell, we did take the ocean, as we were, and steered clear of Teneriffe