of great
service on several occasions. A blockade-runner did not often pass
through the fleet without receiving one or more shots, but these were
always preceded by the flash of a calcium light, or by a blue light; and
immediately followed by two rockets thrown in the direction of the
blockade-runner. The signals were probably concerted each day for the
ensuing night, as they appeared to be constantly changed; but the
rockets were invariably sent up. I ordered a lot of rockets from New
York. Whenever all hands were called to run through the fleet, an
officer was stationed alongside of me on the bridge with the rockets.
One or two minutes after our immediate pursuer had sent up his rockets I
would direct ours to be discharged at a right angle to our course. The
whole fleet would be misled, for even if the vessel which had discovered
us were not deceived, the rest of the fleet would be baffled.

While we were lying at anchor in the harbor of St. George's, during one
of our trips, I was notified by the Governor of the island, that an
officer of the Confederate Navy, then held as a prisoner on board one of
H. B. M.'s ships of war at the naval anchorage, would be delivered up to
me for transportation to the Confederacy, if I would assume the charge.
This officer was charged with the murder of a messmate on board the
Confederate States steamer Sumter, while lying at Gibraltar. The demand
for his extradition, made by the Confederate Government, had been
complied with by the British Government after much delay; and he was
turned over to me for transportation to the Confederacy. Although the
crime appeared to have been committed under circumstances of peculiar
atrocity--it being alleged that the victim was asleep at the time he was
shot--I so far respected the commission which the criminal bore, as to
place him upon parole. Upon reporting his arrival at Wilmington to the
Secretary of the Navy, the latter directed me to release him, upon the
ground that it would be impossible to convict him by court-martial, all
of the witnesses to the transaction being abroad. The man, Hester, was
therefore released, and was never heard of again, I believe, during the
war; but he has added to his evil reputation since its close, by plying
the infamous trade (under the guise of United States Secret Service
agent) of false informer and persecutor in several of the Southern
States. The General Government failed to exercise its usual careful
discrim