get well past the fort, but which stuck on
a sand-bank shortly after doing so, and was captured in the morning.

It is not my intention to inflict on my readers any more anecdotes of my
own doings in the 'D----n;' suffice it to say that I had the good luck
to make six round trips in her, in and out of Wilmington, and that I
gave her over to the chief officer and went home to England with my
spoils. On arriving at Southampton, the first thing I saw in the 'Times'
was a paragraph headed, 'The Capture of the "D----n."' Poor little
craft! I learned afterwards how she was taken, which I will relate, and
which will show that she died game.

The officer to whom I gave over charge was as fine a specimen of a
seaman as well can be imagined, plucky, cool, and determined, and by the
way he was a bit of a medico, as well as a sailor; for by his beneficial
treatment of his patients we had very few complaints of sickness on
board. As our small dispensary was close to my cabin, I used to hear the
conversation that took place between C---- and his patients. I will
repeat one.

_C._ 'Well, my man, what's the matter with you?'

_Patient._ 'Please, sir, I've got pains all over me.'

_C._ 'Oh, all over you, are they; that's bad.'

Then, during the pause, it was evident something was being mixed up, and
I could hear C---- say: 'Here, take this, and come again in the
evening.' (Exit patient.) Then C. said to himself: 'I don't think he'll
come again; he has got two drops of the croton. Skulking rascal, pains
all over him, eh!' I never heard the voice of that patient again; in
fact, after a short time we had no cases of sickness on board. C----
explained to me that the only medicine he served out, as he called it,
was _croton oil_; and that none of the crew came twice for treatment.

Never having run through the blockade as the commander of a vessel
(though he was with me all the time and had as much to do with our luck
as I had), he was naturally very anxious to get safely through. There
can be no doubt that the vessel had lost much of her speed, for she had
been very hardly pushed on several occasions. This told sadly against
her, as the result will show. On the third afternoon after leaving
Nassau she was in a good position for attempting the run when night came
on. She was moving stealthily about waiting for the evening, when
suddenly, on the weather, which had been hitherto thick and hazy,
clearing up, she saw a cruiser unpleasantl