232 WHALING 



sea, Semmes adds, and they safely landed their deep-laden boats 

 on the island of Flores. 



The other side of the story appeared in charges made four 

 years later, which Semmes bitterly resented, that in violation 

 of the laws of war he had ordered his prisoners into leaky boats 

 in rough weather, miles at sea, and had left them to save them- 

 selves as best they could. 



About midnight, as the Alabama lay by the Ocean Rover and 

 a second prize taken the day before, the merchantman Star- 

 light, the watch sighted a third vessel, which Semmes overhauled 

 shortly after daybreak and brought into the wind by sending a 

 32-pound shot so near her stern that it showered the captain 

 with sea water. 



She started tacks and sheets, hauled up her courses, and 

 backed her main yard. She was the whaling barque Alert 

 of New London, outward bound for the Navigators' Islands. 



Looting the Alert of clothing, provisions, and tobacco, and 

 paroling her officers and crew, whom he sent ashore in their 

 own boats, Semmes fired all three prizes, and left them in 

 flames off Flores. 



That evening he overhauled the whaling schooner Weather- 

 gauge of Provincetown, which he burned next day, having 

 landed the crew in their own boats, and two days after that, 

 the brig Altamaha of New Bedford. 



Cruising thus in the Atlantic, Semmes found the whalers, who 

 gathered on the grounds according to the season, the easiest 

 of prizes, as did Waddell of the Shenandoah in '64 and '65 

 when he raised the whaling fleets in the Pacific north to Bering 

 Strait. Chasing whalers was a good deal like picking mush- 

 rooms: there was always a chance that the bull — a Lincoln gun- 

 boat — would appear in the pasture, but otherwise it was a safe 

 and easy sport. The Alabama next took the Benjamin Tucker 

 of New Bedford, the schooner Courser of Provincetown, and 

 the ship Virginia and the barque Elisha Dunbar of New Bed- 

 ford, whence another wordy controversy sprang. 



Captains Tilton of the Virginia and Gifford of the Elisha 

 Dunbar, when they reached home, told the story of their treat- 



