by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER I
THE MISSION TO MOBILE POINT
"I almost wish you were the second or the third lieutenant of theBellevite, instead of the executive officer, Christy," said CaptainBreaker, the commander of the steamer, as they were seated togetherone day on the quarter-deck.
"Do I fail in the discharge of my duty in my present position, Captain?"asked Christy, very much astonished, not to say startled, at the remarkof the commander.
"Not in the slightest degree, my dear boy!" returned Captain Breakerwith very decided emphasis. "You have served in your present capacityfor four months; and if you were fifty years old, and had twenty yearsof naval experience behind you, it would be hardly possible for you tobe more correct and dignified in the performance of the details of youroffice."
"I thank you, Captain, for the partial view you take of what I havedone," added Christy, taking off his cap and bowing to his superior.
"Well, you ought to be a good officer in any situation, my dear fellow,"continued the commander. "I doubt if there is another officer in thenavy who has enjoyed the advantages you have had in preparing himselffor the duties of his profession. You were brought up, so to say, onboard of the Bellevite. You were a good scholar in the first place.Without including myself, you have had excellent teachers in everydepartment of science and philosophy, among whom your father was oneof the wisest. Poor Dashington was one of the best seamen that ever troda deck; and he took especial delight in showing you how to make everyknot and splice, as well as in instructing you in the higher details ofpractical seamanship. Blowitt and myself assisted him, and old Boxie,who gave his life to his country, was more than a grandfather to you."
"I have certainly been very grateful to you and to them for all they didfor me," replied Christy with a sad expression on his handsome face asthe commander recalled the three shipmates of both of them who slept inheroes' graves.
"Perhaps the brilliant genius of our engine-room did quite as much foryou as any other person, though not many years your senior."
"Paul Vapoor is my friend and crony; and if he had been my professor ina college he could have done no more for me. I assure you, Captain, thatI keep alive my gratitude to all my instructors, including some you havenot mentioned."
"I was only explaining why you are what you ought to be, for you havehad very exceptional opportunities, better by far than any other officerin the service. But it is altogether to your credit that you have usedthose opportunities wisely and well."
"I should have been a blockhead if I had not."
"That is very true; but the mournful wrecks of wasted opportunitiesstrew the tracks of many, many young men. I think you can look backupon as few of them as any one within my knowledge," said the commander,bestowing a look of genuine affection upon his chief officer. "More thanonce, even before we entered upon this terrible war, I have told yourfather how happy he ought to be in having such a son as you are."
"Come, come, Captain Breaker, you are praising me!" exclaimed Christyimpatiently.
"I am speaking only the simple truth, and I have very rarely said asmuch as I say now. It was when you asked me if you had failed in thedischarge of the duties of your present position that I was led intothis line of remark; and I am sure you will not be spoiled by honestand just praise," replied the captain.
"Then, to go back to the point where you began, why do you almost wishthat I were second or third lieutenant, instead of executive officer,of the Bellevite, Captain?" continued Christy, rising from his seat, andfixing an earnest gaze upon the face of the commander, for he was verysensitive, and he could not help feeling that he had been lacking insomething that would make him a better executive officer than he was.
"Mr. Ballard, the second lieutenant, and Mr. Walbrook, the third, aregentlemen of the highest grade, and excellent officers; but they areboth somewhat wanting in dash and cool impetuosity."
"'Cool impetuosity' is very good, Captain," added Christy with a laugh.
"But that is precisely what I mean, my boy, and no two words couldexpress the idea any better. You cannot carry an enemy by boarding withthe same precision you man the yards on a ceremonious occasion, or as aregiment of soldiers go on dress parade. It requires vim, dash, spirit.The officers named have this quality in a very considerable degree, yetnot enough of it. But what they lack more is ingenuity, fertility inexpedients, and the expansive view which enables them to take advantagepromptly of circumstances. You never lose your head, Christy."
"I never knew the gentlemen named to lose their heads, and I have alwaysregarded them as model officers," replied the first lieutenant.
"And so they are: you are quite right, my dear boy; but it is possiblefor them to be all you say, and yet, like the young man of greatpossessions in the Scripture, to lack one thing. I should not dare toexchange my second and third lieutenants for any others if I had theopportunity."
"I confess that I do not understand you yet, Captain."
The commander rose from his seat, stretched himself, and then lookedabout the deck. Taking his camp-stool in his hand he carried it over tothe port side of the quarter-deck, and planted it close to the bulwarks.The second lieutenant was the officer of the deck, and was pacing theplanks on the starboard side, while the lookouts in the foretop and onthe top-gallant forecastle were attending closely to their duty,doubtless with a vision of more prize money floating through theirbrains.
The Bellevite, with the fires banked in the furnaces, was at anchoroff the entrance to Mobile Bay, about two miles east of Sand IslandLighthouse, and the same distance south of the narrow neck of land onthe western extremity of which Fort Morgan is located. Her commander hadchosen this position for a purpose; for several weeks before, while theBellevite was absent on a special mission, a remarkably fast steamercalled the Trafalgar had run the blockade inward.
Captain Passford, Senior, through his agents in England, had someinformation in regard to this vessel, which he had sent to CaptainBreaker. Unlike most of the blockade-runners built for this particularservice, she had been constructed in the most substantial manner for anEnglish millionaire, who had insisted that she should be built as strongas the best of steel could make her, for he intended to make a voyagearound the world in her.
Unfortunately for the owner of the Trafalgar, who was a linealdescendant of a titled commander in that great naval battle, he fellfrom his horse in a fox chase, and was killed before the steamer wasfully completed. His heir had no taste for the sea, and the steamer wassold at a price far beyond her cost; and the purchaser had succeeded ingetting her into Mobile Bay with a valuable cargo. She was of abouteight hundred tons burden, and it was said that she could steam twentyknots an hour. She was believed to be the equal of the Alabama and theShenandoah. The Bellevite had been especially notified not to allow theTrafalgar to escape. She had recently had her bottom cleaned, and herengine put in perfect order for the service expected of her, for she wasthe fastest vessel on the blockade.
When Captain Breaker had assured himself that he was out of hearing ofthe officer of the deck, he invited Christy to take a seat at his side.He spoke in a low tone, and was especially careful that no officershould hear him.
"Perhaps I meddle with what does not concern me, Christy; but I cannothelp having ideas of my own," said the commander, when he was satisfiedthat no one but the executive officer could hear him. "There is FortMorgan, with Fort Gaines three miles from it on the other side of thechannel. Mobile Point, as it is called at this end of the neck, extendsmany miles to the eastward. It is less than two miles wide where it isbroadest, and not over a quarter of a mile near Pilot Town."
"I have studied the lay of the land very carefully, for I have had someideas of my own," added Christy, as the commander paused.
"If Fort Morgan had been Fort Sumter, with bad memories clinging to it,an effort would have been made to capture it, either by bombardment bythe navy, or by regular approaches on the part of the army," continuedCaptain Breaker. "They are still pounding away a
t Fort Sumter, becausethere would be a moral in its capture and the reduction of Charleston,for the war began there. Such an event would send a wave of rejoicingthrough the North, though it would be of less real consequence than theopening of Mobile Bay and the cleaning out of the city of Mobile. ExceptWilmington, it is the most pestilent resort for blockade-runners on theentire coast."
"Then you think Fort Morgan can be reduced from the land side?" askedChristy, deeply interested in the conversation.
"I have little doubt of it; and while I believe Farragut will resort tohis favorite plan of running by the forts here, as he has done by thoseof the Mississippi, the army will be planted in the rear of both theseforts. As we have lain here for months, I have studied the situation,and I want to know something more about the land on the east of MobilePoint."
"I should say that it would be easy enough to obtain all the informationyou desire in regard to it," suggested Christy.
"There is an unwritten tradition that the commander must not leave hisship to engage in any duty of an active character, and I cannot explorethe vicinity of the fort myself."
"But you have plenty of officers for such duty."
"I have no doubt there are pickets, and perhaps a camp beyond the risingground, and the exploration would be difficult and dangerous. The twoofficers I have mentioned before lack the dash and ingenuity such anenterprise requires; and a blunder might involve me in difficulty, forI have no orders to obtain the information I desire."
"The officers named are prudent men within reasonable limits."
"They are; but I would give up my idea rather than trust either of themwith this duty," replied Captain Breaker very decidedly. "But I have afurther and nearer object in this exploration; in fact, examining theground would be only secondary."
"What is the real object, Captain?" asked the first lieutenant, hiscuriosity fully awakened.
"I feel that it will be necessary to use extraordinary efforts tocapture the Trafalgar, for no steamer of her alleged speed has ever runinto or out of Mobile Bay. After I informed the flag-officer in regardto her, which your father's information enabled me to do, the Bellevitewas especially charged with the duty of capturing her, if she had tochase her all over the world."
"I have not much doubt that you will do it, Captain."
"I mean to do so if possible. Now these blockade-runners usually anchornear the lower fleet, or under the guns of the fort in five fathoms ofwater. Sometimes they remain there two or three days, waiting for afavorable opportunity to run out. Perhaps the Trafalgar is there now.I wish to know about it."
"I infer that you consider me fitted for this duty, Captain Breaker,"said Christy earnestly.
"For that reason only I almost wished you were second or thirdlieutenant, rather than first," replied the commander with someearnestness in his manner.
There was no unwritten tradition that the first lieutenant should not besent on any duty.