198 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



60. RAPHAEL SEMMES. 



RAPHAEL SEMMES was born in Charles county, Maryland, September 27 > 

 1809. He was early left an orphan and at 10 years of age was sent to live with 

 his uncle, Raphael Semmes. Here he worked in the wood-yard, roamed the 

 country and received some private schooling. At the age of 16 he was appointed 

 midshipman from Maryland, entered on a cruise to the West Indies and the 

 Mediterranean, and passed an examination as midshipman in 1832. After that 

 he studied law with his brother for two years and for about a year was hi charge 

 of naval chronometers. In 1835 he was ordered to the Constellation as acting 

 master and cruised chiefly in the West Indies. On his return he was admitted 

 to the bar. He married Anne Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Oliver M. Spencer 

 and Electra Ogden. In March 1837 Semmes was promoted to a lieutenancy. 

 It was a period of little naval activity. Semmes was employed in naval routine, 

 in navy-yards, on harbor surveys, etc. He bought land on the Perdido river, 

 Alabama, and settled his family there. He carried a diplomatic message to Vera 

 Cruz and overland to Mexico City; later, he joined the fleet at Vera Cruz in 1846, 

 and there commanded the brig Somers, of 10 guns. While on blockading duty 

 his fidelity was noted by the commodore of the fleet. When a blockade-runner 

 went in under the guns of the fort he, with 10 men, rowed to it in the darkness 

 and set fire to the ship, whose cargo of powder soon exploded. In a gale the Somers 

 capsized and half of his crew of 100 was drowned, but he was picked up by a boat 

 and eventually succored by a foreign man-of-war. He was exonerated for the 

 loss of his ship. He worked hard at Vera Cruz, landing infantry and cannon, 

 and then attached himself to Scott's army in order that he might be in the fight- 

 ing. Everywhere his gallantry was praised by his superior officers. Between 

 the Mexican and Civil Wars he commanded various naval vessels and spent five 

 years in Mobile studying and practicing law. In February 1861 he resigned from 

 the Federal service and offered his services to Jefferson Davis, who commissioned 

 him to go north and buy munitions, which he did. Then he proposed that he 

 should go to sea and prey on the enemy's commerce. He learned of a steamer 

 that he thought would do and the next day was off for New Orleans, with the 

 orders, "Do the enemy's commerce the greatest injury in the shortest tune." 

 Semmes now lost all of his old inertness and became a new man. He pushed 

 the Sumter, whose renovation he completed in two months, through the Mississippi 

 pass with the blockader Brooklyn only 5 miles away. He caught several prize 

 ships and took them to a Cuban port; here he argued his right of doing so; but 

 the authorities decided against him and he lost his prizes. When, at the Dutch 

 island of Curasao, the governor was considering his demand to enter the harbor, 

 he fired a shell near to the council chamber and the governor decided to admit him. 

 At various other ports Semmes had to argue his rights as a belligerent; sometimes 

 he succeeded but usually he failed. At Gibraltar he sold the Sumter and sailed 

 for England, and eventually secured the Alabama, which had just been finished 

 there. In the following months he captured scores of American merchant ships 

 and held court over doubtful cases, his legal training enabling him to decide in 

 accordance with international law. Finally, in his cruises, he reached Cher- 

 bourg in June 1864, and was here met and defeated, offshore, by the Kearsarge. 

 He escaped to England. Returning home, he was assigned to the Confederate 

 fleet in the James river (February 1865), and when Richmond was evacuated 



