the vessels then steered straight in and anchored under the
Confederate batteries at Fort Fisher. More vessels were lost crawling
along this dangerous beach than were taken by the cruisers. I have seen
three burning at one time, for the moment a vessel struck she was set
fire to, to prevent the blockaders getting her off when daylight came.

This system of evading the cruisers, however, having been discovered, it
was put a stop to by a very ingenious method, by which several vessels
were captured and an end put to that little game. Of course I can only
conjecture the way in which it was done, but it seemed to me to be
thus: At the extreme end of the line of blockaders lay one of them with
a kedge anchor, down so close to the shore that she left but a very
little space for the blockade-runner to pass between her and the beach.
The captain of the runner, however, trusting to his vessel's speed and
invisibility, dashed through this space, and having got by the cruiser
thought himself safe. Poor fellow! he was safe for a moment, but in such
a trap that his only chance of getting out of it was by running on shore
or giving up. For no sooner had he passed than up went a rocket from the
cruiser who had seen the runner rush by, and who now moved a little
further in towards the shore, so as to stop her egress by the way she
went in; and the other vessels closing round by a pre-arranged plan, the
capture or destruction of the blockade-runner was a certainty.

Some of the captains most pluckily ran their vessels on shore, and
frequently succeeded in setting fire to them; but the boats of the
cruisers were sometimes too sharp in their movements to admit of this
being done, and the treatment of those who tried to destroy their
vessels was, I am sorry to say, very barbarous and unnecessary.
Moreover, men who endeavoured to escape by jumping overboard after the
vessel was on shore were often fired at by grape and shell, in what
seemed to me a very unjustifiable manner. Great allowance, however, must
be made for the men-of-war's men, who after many hard nights of dreary
watching constantly under weigh, saw their well-earned prize escaping by
being run on shore and set fire to, just as they imagined they had got
possession. On several occasions they have been content to tow the empty
shell of an iron vessel off the shore, her valuable cargo having been
destroyed by fire.

But I have left my little craft lying as was stated about sixty