e afternoon, the Lincoln was under way with the paroled prisoners;
her master having been put under oath to shape the vessel's course for
Fortress Monroe; and we applied the torch to the "Shooting Star." The
burning ship was visible for many miles after we left her; and it was a
strange, wild spectacle, that flaming beacon in the rough sea. The
master of the "Albion Lincoln" shaped his course straight for New York.
I hope his conscience has since reproached him for violating his oath,
though given to a "rebel."

The gale increased during the night. Next day our course was shaped for
Montauk Point; the scene of the previous day's operations having been
in about latitude 40 deg. and longitude 71 deg., or about fifty miles
southeast of Sandy Hook. Montauk Point was sighted from aloft about
mid-day, and the engines were slowed down, so as not to approach too
near the land before night. We spoke several vessels during the day,
all of them under the British flag. Toward night we steamed towards the
land, with the expectation of finding smoother water, for the wind
continued to blow from the southwest. At 5.45 P. M., we overhauled two
schooners close in to the shore; one of them was the "Good-speed," from
Boston to Philadelphia, in ballast; and the other, the "Otter Rock,"
from Bangor for Washington with a load of potatoes. Both were scuttled.
Our boats did not get alongside the Chickamauga again till eight
o'clock. The wind had been gradually veering round to the northeast,
and the night was growing so dark and stormy, that I was reluctantly
compelled to abandon the purpose previously entertained of entering
Long Island Sound. The crew of the Good-speed profited by the darkness
to escape in their boat to the land, a few miles distant.

We made an offing of thirty or forty miles during the night, and next
morning captured the bark "Speedwell," in ballast from Boston to
Philadelphia. The captain's sister and his child were on board his
vessel, and represented to be sick. I could not reconcile it to my sense
of humanity to subject the weaker sex to the probable dangers and
certain hardships of confinement on board the Chickamauga. The Speedwell
was therefore bonded for $18,000, and the captain--a very decent fellow
by the way--sent on his voyage rejoicing; but the "recording angels" of
the Northern press never placed this act to my credit.

The northeast gale, which had been brewing for some days, commenced in
earnest toward t