THE CIVIL WAR 231 



ordered her to heave to until morning, but her master, as 

 Semmes tells the tale, having learned that Semmes had put in 

 to Santa Cruz and had let the master and men of the Ocmulgee 

 land in their own boats, asked permission to do then and there 

 the same thing. 



''We were four or five miles from the land and I suggested 

 that it was some distance to pull," Semmes writes. ^ 



'''Oh! that is nothing,' said he, 'we whalers sometimes chase 

 a whale, on the broad sea, until our ships are hull-down, and 

 think nothing of it. It will rid you of us the sooner, and be of 

 some service to us besides.' 



"Seeing that the sea was smooth, and that there was really 

 no risk to be run, for a Yankee whale-boat might be made, with 

 a little management, to ride out an ordinary gale of wind, I 

 consented, and the delighted master returned to his ship to 

 make the necessary preparations. I gave him the usual per- 

 mission to take what provisions he needed, the whaling gear 

 belonging to his boats, and the personal effects of himself and 

 men. He worked like a beaver, for not more than a couple of 

 hours had elapsed, before he was again alongside of the Alabama, 

 with all his six boats, with six men in each, ready to start for the 

 shore. I could not but be amused when I looked over the side 

 into these boats, at the amount of plunder that the rapacious 

 fellow had packed in them. They were literally loaded down 

 with all sorts of traps, from the seamen's chests and bedding, 

 to the tabby cat and parrot. Nor had the 'main chance' been 

 overlooked, for all the 'cabin stores' had been secured, and 

 sundry barrels of beef and pork, besides. I said to him, 'Cap- 

 tain, your boats appear to me to be rather deeply laden; are 

 you not afraid to trust them?' 



'"Oh! no,' he replied; 'they are as buoyant as ducks, and we 

 shall not ship a drop of water.' 



"After a detention of a few minutes, during which my clerk 

 was putting the crew under parole, I gave the master leave to 

 depart." 



The whalemen sang as they pulled for shore over the calm 



^Raphael Semmes. Memoirs of Service Afloat, p. 432. 



