Sunday, the 19th, came; a fine day, atmosphere somewhat hazy, little sea, light westerly wind. At 10 o’clock the Kearsarge was near the buoy marking the line of shoals to the eastward of Cherbourg, at a distance of about three miles from the entrance. The decks had been holystoned, the bright work cleaned, the guns polished, and the crew were dressed in Sunday suits. They were inspected at quarters and dismissed to attend divine service. Seemingly no one thought of the enemy so long awaited and not appearing, speculation as to her coming had nearly ceased. At 10:20 the officer of the deck reported a steamer approaching from Cherbourg,—a frequent occurrence, and consequently it created no surprise. The bell was tolling for service when some one shouted, “She’s coming, and heading straight for us!” Soon, by the aid of a glass, the officer of the deck made out the enemy and shouted, “The Alabama!” and calling down the ward-room hatch repeated the cry, “The Alabama!” The drum beat to general quarters; Captain Winslow put aside the prayer-book, seized the trumpet, ordered the ship about, and headed seaward. The ship was cleared for action, with the battery pivoted to starboard.
The Alabama approached from the western entrance, escorted by the French iron-clad frigate Couronnet flying the pennant of the commandant of the port, followed in her wake by a small fore-and-aft-rigged steamer, the Deerhound, flying the flag of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club. The commander of the frigate had informed Captain Semmes that his ship would escort him to the limit of the French waters. The frigate, having convoyed the Alabama three marine miles from the coast, put down her helm, and steamed back into port without delay.
The steam-yacht continued on, and remained near the scene of action.
Captain Winslow had assured the French admiral that in the event of an engagement the position of the ship should be far enough from shore to prevent a violation of the law of nations. To avoid a question of jurisdiction, and to avert an escape to neutral waters in case of retreat, the Kearsarge steamed to sea, followed by the enemy, giving the appearance of running away and being pursued. Between six and seven miles from the shore the Kearsarge, thoroughly ready, at 10:50 wheeled, at a distance of one and a quarter miles from her opponent, presented the starboard battery, and steered direct for her, with the design of closing or of running her down. The Alabama sheered and presented her starboard battery. More speed was ordered, the Kearsarge advanced rapidly, and at 10:57 received a broadside of solid shot at a range of about eighteen hundred yards. This broadside cut away a little of the rigging, but the shot mostly passed over or fell short. It was apparent that Captain Semmes intended to fight at long range.
The Kearsarge advanced with increased speed, receiving a second and part of a third broadside with similar effect. Captain Winslow wished to get at short range, as the guns were loaded with five-second shell. Arrived within nine hundred yards, the Kearsarge, fearing a fourth broadside, and apprehensive of a raking, sheered and broke her silence with the starboard battery. Each ship was now pressed under a full head of steam, the position being broadside, both employing the starboard guns.
Captain Winslow, fearful that the enemy would make for the shore, determined with a port helm to run under the Alabama’s stern for raking, but was prevented by her sheering and keeping her broadside to the Kearsarge, which forced the fighting on a circular track, each ship, with a strong port helm, steaming around a common center, and pouring its fire into its opponent a quarter to half a mile away. There was a current setting to westward three knots an hour.
The action was now fairly begun. The Alabama changed from solid shot to shell.2 A shot from an early broadside of the Kearsarge carried away the spanker-gaff of the enemy, and caused his ensign to come down by the run. This incident was regarded as a favorable omen by the men, who cheered and went with increased confidence to their work. The fallen ensign reappeared at the mizzen. The Alabama returned to solid shot, and soon after fired both shot and shell to the end. The firing of the Alabama was rapid and wild, getting better near the close; that of the Kearsarge was deliberate, accurate, and almost from the beginning productive of dismay, destruction, and death.3 The Kearsarge gunners had been cautioned against firing without direct aim, and had been advised to point the heavy guns below rather than above the water-line, and to clear the deck of the enemy with the lighter ones. Though subjected to an incessant storm of shot and shell, they kept their stations and obeyed instructions.
REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN A. WINSLOW, CAPTAIN OF THE “KEARSARGE.” FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN SOON AFTER THE FIGHT, IN POSSESSION OF PAYMASTER-GENERAL J. A. SMITH, U.S.N.
The effect upon the enemy was readily perceived, and nothing could restrain the enthusiasm of our men. Cheer succeeded cheer; caps were thrown in the air or overboard; jackets were discarded; sanguine of victory, the men were shouting, as each projectile took effect: “That is a good one!” “Down, boys!” “Give her another like the last!” “Now we have her!” and so on, cheering and shouting to the end.
After the Kearsarge had been exposed to an uninterrupted cannonade for eighteen minutes, a 68-pounder Blakely shell passed through the starboard bulwarks below the main rigging, exploded upon the quarter-deck, and wounded three of the crew of the after pivot-gun. With these exceptions, not an officer or man received serious injury. The three unfortunate men were speedily taken below, and so quietly was the act done that at the termination of the fight a large number of the men were unaware that any of their comrades were wounded. Two shots entered the ports occupied by the thirty-twos, where several men were stationed, one taking effect in the hammock-netting, the other going through the opposite port, yet none were hit. A shell exploded in the hammock-netting and set the ship on fire; the alarm calling for fire-quarters was sounded, and men who had been detailed for such an emergency put out the fire, while the rest staid at the guns.
It is wonderful that so few casualties occurred on board the Kearsarge, considering the number on the Alabama—the former having fired 173 shot and shell, and the latter nearly double that number. The Kearsarge concentrated her fire, and poured in the 11-inch shells with deadly effect. One penetrated the coal-bunker of the Alabama, and a dense cloud of coal-dust arose. Others struck near the water-line between the main and mizzen masts, exploded within board, or, passing through, burst beyond. Crippled and torn, the Alabama moved less quickly and began to settle by the stern, yet did not slacken her fire, but returned successive broadsides without disastrous result to us.
Captain Semmes witnessed the havoc made by the shells, especially by those of our after pivot-gun, and offered a reward to any one who would silence it. Soon his battery was turned upon this particular offending gun. It was in vain, for the work of destruction went on. We had completed the seventh rotation on the circular track and had begun the eighth, when the Alabama, now settling, sought to escape by setting all available sail (fore-trysail and two jibs), left the circle amid a shower of shot and shell, and headed for the French waters; but to no purpose. In winding, the Alabama presented the port battery, with only two guns bearing, and showed gaping sides, through which the water washed. The Kearsarge pursued, keeping on a line nearer the shore, and with a few well-directed shots hastened the sinking. Then the Alabama was at our mercy. Her colors were struck, and the Kearsarge ceased firing. I was told by our prisoners that two of the junior officers swore they would never surrender, and in a mutinous spirit rushed to the two port guns and opened fire upon the Kearsarge. Captain Winslow, amazed at this extraordinary conduct of an enemy who had hauled down his flag in token of surrender, exclaimed, “He is playing us a trick; give him another broadside.” Again the shot and shell went crashing through her sides, and the Alabama continued to settle by the stern. The Kearsarge was laid across her bows for raking, and in position to use grape and canister.
A white flag was then shown over the stern of the Alabama and her ensign was half-masted, union down. Captain Winslow for the second time gave orders to cease firing. Thus ended the fight, after a duration of one hour and two minutes. Captain Semmes
, in his report, says: “Although we were now but four hundred yards from each other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had been struck. It is charitable to suppose that a ship-of-war of a Christian nation could not have done this intentionally.” He is silent as to the renewal by the Alabama of the fight after his surrender—an act which, in Christian warfare, would have justified the Kearsarge in continuing the fire until the Alabama had sunk beneath the waters.
Boats were now lowered from the Alabama. Her master’s-mate, Fullam, an Englishman, came alongside the Kearsarge with a few of the wounded, reported the disabled and sinking condition of his ship, and asked for assistance. Captain Winslow inquired, “Does Captain Semmes surrender his ship?” “Yes,” was the reply. Fullam then solicited permission to return with his boat and crew to assist in rescuing the drowning, pledging his word of honor that when this was done he would come on board and surrender. Captain Winslow granted the request. With less generosity he could have detained the officer and men, supplied their places in the boat from his ship’s company, secured more prisoners, and afforded equal aid to the distressed. The generosity was abused, as the sequel shows. Fullam pulled to the midst of the drowning, rescued several officers, went to the yacht Deerhound, and cast his boat adrift, leaving a number of men struggling in the water.
THE ELEVEN-INCH FORWARD PIVOT-GUN ON THE “KEARSARGE,” IN ACTION.
It was now seen that the Alabama was settling fast. The wounded, and the boys who could not swim, were sent away in the quarter-boats, the waist-boats having been destroyed. Captain Semmes dropped his sword into the sea and jumped overboard with the remaining officers and men.
Coming under the stern of the Kearsarge from the windward, the Deerhound was hailed, and her commander requested by Captain Winslow to run down and assist in picking up the men of the sinking ship. Or, as her owner, Mr. John Lancaster, reported: “The fact is, that when we passed the Kearsarge the captain cried out, ‘For God’s sake, do what you can to save them’; and that was my warrant for interfering in any way for the aid and succor of his enemies.” The Deerhound was built by the Lairds at the same time and in the same yard with the Alabama. Throughout the action she kept about a mile to the windward of the contestants. After being hailed she steamed toward the Alabama, which sank almost immediately after. This was at 12:24. The Alabama sank in forty-five fathoms of water, at a distance of about four and a half miles from the breakwater, off the west entrance. She was severely hulled between the main and mizzen masts, and settled by the stern; the mainmast, pierced by a shot at the very last, broke off near the head and went over the side, the bow lifted high from the water, and then came the end. Suddenly assuming a perpendicular position, caused by the falling aft of the battery and stores, straight as a plumb-line, stern first, she went down, the jib-boom being the last to appear above water. Thus sank the terror of merchantmen, riddled through and through, and as she disappeared to her last resting-place there was no cheer; all was silent.
The yacht lowered her two boats, rescued Captain Semmes (wounded in the hand by broken iron rigging), First Lieutenant Kell, twelve officers, and twenty-six men, leaving the rest of the survivors to the two boats of the Kearsarge. Apparently aware that the forty persons he had rescued would be claimed, Mr. Lancaster steamed away as fast as he coul, direct for Southampton, without waiting for such surgical assistance as the Kearsarge might render. Captain Winslow permitted the yacht to secure his prisoners, anticipating their subsequent surrender. Again his confidence was misplaced, and he afterward wrote: “It was my mistake at the moment that I could not recognize an enemy who, under the garb of a friend, was affording assistance.” The aid of the yacht, it is presumed, was asked in a spirit of chivalry, for the Kearsarge, comparatively uninjured, with but three wounded, and a full head of steam, was in condition to engage a second enemy. Instead of remaining at a distance of about four hundred yards from the Alabama, and from this position sending two boats, the other boats being injured, the Kearsarge by steaming close to the settling ship, and in the midst of the defeated, could have captured all—Semmes, officers, and men. Captain Semmes says: “There was no appearance of any boat coming to me from the enemy after the ship went down. Fortunately, however, the steam-yacht Deerhound, owned by a gentleman of Lancashire, England, Mr. John Lancaster, who was himself on board, steamed up in the midst of my drowning men, and rescued a number of both officers and men from the water. I was fortunate enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of the neutral flag, together with about forty others, all told. About this time the Kearsarge sent one, and then, tardily, another boat.”
This imputation of inhumanity is contradicted by Mr. Lancaster’s assertion that he was requested to do what he could to save “the poor fellows who were struggling in the water for their lives.”
The Deerhound edged to the leeward and steamed rapidly away. An officer approached Captain Winslow and reported the presence of Captain Semmes and many officers on board the English yacht. Believing the information authentic, as it was obtained from the prisoners, he suggested the expediency of firing a shot to bring her to, and asked permission. Captain Winslow declined, saying “it was impossible; the yacht was simply coming round.” Meanwhile the Deerhound increased the distance from the Kearsarge; another officer spoke to him in similar language, but with more positiveness. Captain Winslow replied that no Englishman who carried the flag of the Royal Yacht Squadron could so act. The Deerhound continued her flight, and yet another officer urged the necessity of firing a shot. With undiminished confidence Captain Winslow refused, saying the yacht was “simply coming round,” and would not go away without communicating. The escape of the yacht and her coveted prize was manifestly regretted. The famed Alabama, “a formidable ship, the terror of American commerce, well armed, well manned, well handled,” was destroyed, “sent to the bottom in an hour,” but her commander had escaped; the victory seemed already lessened. It was held by the Navy Department that Captain Semmes violated the usages of war in surrendering to Captain Winslow through the agency of one of his officers and then effecting an escape during the execution of the commission; that he was a prisoner of the United States Government from the moment he sent the officer to make the surrender.4
The wounded of the survivors were brought on board the Kearsarge for surgical attendance. Seventy men, including five officers (Surgeon F. L. Galt, acting paymaster, Second Lieutenant J. D. Wilson, First Assistant-Engineer M. J. Freeman, Third Assistant-Engineer Pundt, and Boatswain McCloskey), were saved by the Kearsarge’s boats and a French pilot-boat. Another pilot-boat saved Second Lieutenant Armstrong and some men, who were landed at Cherbourg. Lieutenant Wilson was the only officer who delivered up his sword. He refused to go on board the Deerhound, and because of his honorable conduct Captain Winslow on taking his parole gave him a letter of recommendation. Our crew fraternized with their prisoners, and shared their clothes, supper, and grog with them. The conduct of the Alabama’s Assistant-Surgeon Llewellyn, son of a British rector, deserves mention. He was unremitting in attention to the wounded during battle, and after the surrender superintended their removal to the boats, refusing to leave the ship while one remained. This duty performed, being unable to swim, he attached two empty shell-boxes to his waist as a life-preserver and jumped overboard. Nevertheless, he was unable to keep his head above water.
SEAMAN WILLIAM GOUIN, MORTALLY WOUNDED ON THE “KEARSARGE.”
When the Kearsarge was cleared for action every man on the sick-list went to his station. The Kearsarge had three wounded, of whom one died in the hospital a few days after the fight. This was William Gouin, ordinary seaman, whose behavior during and after battle was worthy of the highest praise. Stationed at the after pivot-gun he was seriously wounded in the leg by the explosion of a shell; in agony, and exhausted from the loss of blood, he dragged himself to the forward hatch, concealing the severity of his injury, so that his comrades might not leave their stations for his assistance; fainting, he was lowered to th
e care of the surgeon, and when he revived he greeted the surgeon with a smile, saying, “Doctor, I can fight no more, and so come to you, but it is all right; I am satisfied, for we are whipping the Alabama”; and afterward, “I will willingly lose my leg or my life, if it is necessary.” Lying upon his mattress, he paid attention to the progress of the fight, so far as could be known by the sounds on the deck, his face showing satisfaction whenever the cheers of his shipmates were heard; with difficulty he waved his hand over his head, and joined in each cheer with a feeble voice. When a wounded shipmate on either side of him complained, he reproved him, saying, “Am I not worse hurt than you! and I am satisfied, for we are whipping the Alabama.” Directly after the enemy’s wounded were brought on board he desired the surgeon to give him no further attention, for he was “doing well,” requesting that all aid be given to “the poor fellows of the Alabama.” In the hospital he was patient and resigned, and happy in speaking of the victory. “This man, so very interesting by his courage and resignation,” wrote the French surgeon-in-chief, “received general sympathy; all desired his recovery and lamented his death.” At a dinner given by loyal Americans in Paris to Captain Winslow and two of his officers, a telegram was received announcing the death of Gouin. His name was honorably mentioned, his behavior eulogized, and his memory drunk in silence.
CLOSE OF THE COMBAT—THE “KEARSARGE” GETTING INTO POSITION TO RAKE THE “ALABAMA.”
At 3:10 P.M. the Kearsarge anchored in Cherbourg harbor close by the ship-of-war Napoléon, and was soon surrounded by boats of every description filled with excited and inquisitive people. Ambulances, by order of the French admiral, were sent to the landing to receive the wounded, and thence they were taken to the Hôpital de la Marine, where arrangements had been made for their reception. Dr. Galt and all the prisoners except four officers were paroled and sent on shore before sunset. Secretary Welles soon after expressed his disapprobation of this action.
Hearts Touched by Fire Page 111