THE ALABAMA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 192, 16 September 1864, Page 3

THE ALABAMA.

[From the Times],. On Sunday morning, just as all good people were coming down to breakfast, an awful Sunday morning’s work was preparing within sight of the British Isles, if among these isles we may include the barren rock,upon which a million has been spent to make it a sentr3’-box to watch the port of Cherbourg, From the latter port there issued the Alabama , the ship that for two years has struck terror into the heart of the most confident and almost tlio strongest naval power in the world More than a hundred times over, the very name, of the Alabama, thundered through a speakingtrumpet, lias brought down the rival flag as if by magic, and compelled the luckless crew to submit to the inglorious process of surrender, examination, spoliation, and imprisonment, to see their ship plundered and sent to the bottom. In the shape of chronometers, and other valuables, the Alabama carried the spolia opimaoi a whole fleet. This time, however, it was not to order a merchantman to lie-to while his papers were being examined, that this scourge of the Federal navy left Cherbourg. It is not in our power to saywhy Capt. Semmes, who has gained so much glory and so unquestionable a reputation for courage that he could afford to be prudent, came out with a ship just returned from a long voyage, and much in want of repair, to encounter a foe larger, better manned, better provided, as it turned out, with some special contrivances for protection, and quite likely to be as well handled as his own ship. For many months we had heard oi the Kearsage as a foe worthy of the Alabama, should she have the good luck to catch her ; indeed the captain of the Kearsage had assumed that if they met, this could be the only possible result. Why, then, did not Capt. Semmes see that this was an occasion for the exercise of that discretion or that ingenuity which the greatest Generals have thought rather an addition to their fame ? Did his prudence give way, as they say a bravo man’s courage will sometimes ? Was he wearied with a warfare upon the defenceless? Did conscience or self-respect suggest that the destroyer of a hundred unarmed merchantmen had need to prove his courage and redeem his name from piracy ? It is simply said that he had been challenged, and that he accepted the challenge, not without tome forecast of the result. As an ordinary duellist hands his watch and his pocket-book to a friend, Capt. Semmes sent on shore his sixty chronometers—the mementoes of so many easier conflicts—his money, and the bills of ransomed vessels. He then steamed nine miles out to sea, and entered into mortal combat with the enemy, first exchanging shots at a distance of litile more than a mile—out of all distance our forefathers would have called it: not so now. As it happened, as it frequently happens on such occasions, an English yacht was in the harbour, and its owner, Mr. Lancaster, thought the •view of one of the most important naval enga yements likely to occur in his time was worth the risk of a stray shot. His wife, niece, and family were on board ; but, no doubt they shared his interest, in the spectacle. The firing began just as we Londoners had got to the First Lesson in the Morning Service. As the guns of the Alabama had been pointed for 2,000 yards, and the second shot went right through the Kearsage, that was probably the distance at first, and wo were are told the ships were never nearer than quarter of a mile. The Alabama fired quicker in all about 150 rounds ; the Kearsage fired about 100, chiefly 11-inch shells. One of these shells broke the Alabama’s Judder, and compelled her to hoist sail. By this time, however, after about en hour’s work, the Alabama was sinking, and could only make the best of her way in the direo-

tion of Cherbourg. Pursuing our comparative chronology, this brings us to the beginning of the sermon ; and it was at the very time that our congregations were listening, as well as they could, to the arguments or tho eloquence of our preachers, that the very moving incidents of death and rescue took place off Cherbourg—the gradual sinking of the Alabama, the picking up of tho drowning seamen, and tho final departure of tho J Deerhound with Captain Semmes, bis surviving officers and some of his crew. The men were all true to the last; they only ceased firing when the water came to the muzzles of their guns ; and as they swam for life all they cared for was that their commander should not fall into Federal hands. He owes his best men to the training they received on board the Excellent. To ail appearance the superiority of theKearsage lay partly in her guns, and of course somewhat in her more powerful machinery, which enabled her to move quicker and manoeuvre more easily. We are becoming accustomed to scenes that only four years ago would have been thought appalling, horrible, and portentous. Think of a quiet gentleman, with wife, niece, and family, perhaps governess and maid-servants, having witnessed at their ease, on Sunday morning, a fight, not between two cocks or two dogs, but between two men-of-war, a short distance from Southampton. In fact, they, and the survivors of the ship destroyed, were walking about shopping on Monday morning. There appears to have been a very respectable allowance of killed, wounded, and missing, and among the latter is an English surgeon, who is supposed to have gone to the bottom in the midst of his bleeding patients. Wo shall know very shortly whether the chains hung outside the Kearsage saved her men. To all appearance they did not; and but for the melancholy fact that some of the Alabama's wounded men must have gone down with her, the loss would probably be the same on both sides. Is there not something ominous in such an encounter within our own seas ? Such a contest, so brief, so hard-fought, and so decisive, is even more terrible than the hand-to-hand tussle and the mere game of fisticuffs that our old fleets used to indulge in with a thousand popguns on cither side. True, there was damage done at last, but sometimes very little damage to speak of, and a hi" ship might receive many hundred shots only to have the glory of showing the shot-holes to the population of Portsmouth. It is not so now. At a distance of a mile, never less than a quarter of a mile, a formidable ship, (he terror of American commerce, well armed, well manned, well handled, is sent to the bottom in an hour. Exactly an hour elapsed from the first shot to the moment when it became obvious that the vessel was sinking, when, indeed, the rudder was broken, and the fires were put out. That is the pace at which our naval engagements will be fought in future. In this instance the pace was all the quicker because the guns had the start of the ships, the guns being the new artillery the ships wooden, excepting tho chains of tho Kearsage if they constitute an exception. The next duel in the British Channel will probably be between two vessels of tho T Varrior class; and he must be a bold man who can be sure that it will last as long as a Sunday Morning Service, or be less decisive than the last Sunday.