Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 373 



of course, entirely justified. It was one thing, 

 however, for the president of the Confederacy to 

 select captured soldiers as hostages in such a 

 case, and an entirely different one for the com- 

 mander of a cruiser to select merchant seamen 

 for a similar purpose. 



Then, after the Federal authorities had cap- 

 tured and imprisoned in irons the paymaster of 

 the Sumter, Semmes, instead of referring the 

 matter to his government for action, avenged 

 himself and the paymaster, as he said, by putting 

 in irons and otherwise ill treating the crews of 

 several captured whalers. "I pursued this prac- 

 tice, painful as it was, for the next seven or eight 

 captures, putting the masters and mates of the 

 ships, as well as the crews, in irons." (Memoirs- 

 of Service Afloat, p. 429.) 



Starbuck, in describing another feature of the 

 work of the Confederate cruisers, says : 



"They adopted a device to ensnare their vic- 

 tims which can but be severely reprobated as 

 inhuman. Capturing a vessel, they waited until 

 night had fallen upon the scene, and then, firing 

 her, they pounced upon the unfortunates who, 



