released her on ransom bond, and
converted her into a cartel, sending some forty-five prisoners on board
of her, the crews of the last three ships burned.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_Disappointment--Out of the track--The Levi Starbuck--Fresh vegetables
--News--The other side of the case--Kindness repaid--The T.B. Wales--A
family--Volunteers--In man-of-war trim_.

The month of October went out as it came in with severe and blustering
weather. The Alabama was still upwards of two hundred miles from New
York, and it seemed as though a change would become necessary in her
plans. Ever since starting upon his adventurous cruise, it had been a
favorite scheme with Captain Semmes to make his appearance off this the
very chief of the enemy's ports, and, if not strong enough actually to
threaten the place itself, at all events to make a few captures within
sight of the capital city of the North. It had been, therefore, a
special disappointment to find himself baffled by a continued succession
of hostile winds and contrary currents; and even the brilliant success
that had thus far attended him in the capture of twenty-one vessels and
the destruction of property to very nearly a million of dollars, seemed
hardly to compensate for the failure of his pet project.

It was fast becoming evident, however, that the scheme for putting in an
appearance off New York must be abandoned, at all events for the
present; and on the 30th October the chief engineer was consulted as to
the amount of coal remaining in the bunkers. The report was unfavorable.
Four days' fuel only was left; and it was clear that even had the vessel
been nearer than she was to her intended cruising ground, this would
have been rather a short supply with which to venture on so dangerous an
experiment. Reluctantly, therefore, the scheme was relinquished, the
fires let down, propeller hoisted up again, and sail made to the
southward and eastward _en route_ for the coal depot.

The ship was now out of the track of commerce, and for some time
scarcely a vessel was seen. The 2d November, however, brought a prize in
the shape of the ship Levi Starbuck, five days out from New Bedford, on
a whaling voyage of thirty months to the Pacific Ocean. Like all
whalers, she carried a stronger crew than is common with other vessels
of similar tonnage, and twenty-nine prisoners were transferred from her
to the Alabama. Being bound, too, on so long a cruise, she was well
furnished with a