Famous Clyde Commerce Raider.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 39, 22 May 1917, Page 2

Famous Clyde Commerce Raider.

THE OLD “SEA KING.”

It is questionable if in the history of the seven seas there is a more romantic story than that of the Clydebnilt tea-capper, which became in turn British transport, tea-clipper, Confederate cruiser, peaceful trader, and Royal yacht. This,,in brief, is the story of Stephen’s old Sea King. The Sea King was a screw steamer of about 1200 tons, built at Kelvinhaugh, near Glasgow, by Messrs Alex. Stephen & Sons, Ltd., now of the famous Linthouse Shipbuilding Yard. Launched on August 17, 1863, with fitting eclat, the vessel was the first screw steamer built on the principle of iron frames and wood planking, and also the first steamer specially constructed for the China tea trade. These were the days of the great “China tea races," and the Sea King was built with a view' of competing with the fastest ships then afloat in bringing home the first teas of the season. But in the comparatively innocuous strife of the sea races the Sea King was not destined to play a conspicuous part, for only once in the course of l»r chequered career did she participate in the tea-clipper v~ ■ tests.

Apart altogether from the romance of her career, the Sea King was a very interesting specimen of marine architecture. A full chip-rigged auxiliary screw steamer, built on lino lines, and with a lifting propeller designed to assist her sailing powers, she cost £45,000 to build, and from the outset of her career was reputed a good fast ship, and a credit to her Duilders. A further notable circumstance is that she was the first steamer constructed on the “composite principle, patented and successfully Introduced by the then head of the builders’ firm, the late Mr. Alex. Stephen. •' Prom the day she entered the water the Sea King was a “marked ship.” While she lay fitting out in Glasgow harbour, the British Government came on the scene, and she made her first voyage under Government charter, conveying troops and ammunition to New Zealand to help in quelling the first Maori war. Those were dark days in North America. The great Civil War was being waged between North and South, and on the seas the commerce war between the Federals of the Northern States and the Confederates of the Southern States was at its height. The Confederates had had previous dealings with the Clyde-, and had come to know and to respect those Clyde-built blockade runners which played such a romantic part in that great drama. It was therefore in the nature of things that the Confederate Commissioners should come to know of the Sea King, and they followed her doings with the closest of attention. On her return from New Zealand-, the steamer was handed over to her owners, and at length she set sail for China to bring home a cargo of tea—the one and only cargo of tea ihe carried. Again the Confederate Commissioners kept a close watch on her outward progress, and apparently her performances were to their mtisfaction, for on her arrival at Swatow she was inspected by Confederate representatives, and arrangements apparently were concluded for her transfer to the Navy of the Southern States. From China, the Sea King, after a speedy passage, made London with a valuable cargo of tea, and some time later, on Oct. 8, 1854, to be accurate, she put to *ea again, ostensibly outward bound for China once more.

The Sea King left London a tear clipper, hut it was many days ere she returned to a home port—and even then it was in the altered guise of a warship. For some days, the outward passage was uneventful, and the Sea King made fine headway until the Canaries appeared on the horison. It was then a strange craft was signalled, and amazement was writ large on the countenances of the Sea King’s crew as the newcomer bore down on them and they hove to. A. Confederate tender came alongside, *nd two Sin. smooth-bore guns, two Whitworth 32-pounders, and two 18pounder rifles were transferred, along with a quantity of lit ores, to the Sea King. A nominal sale wan effected, ind the Confederate; flag was hoisted. The British crew were blandly informed that the Sea King was a peaceful trader no longer, but the Confederate cruiser Shenandoah. But here a hitch developed ; the Britons were furious at the manner in which they had been tricked. They bad embarked for a voyage to China, and, however much the officers may have known, it appears! that the crew knew nothing of the true object of the voyage. They were powerless, and it was poesibly only that fact which induced some of them to remain with the steamer. The majority however, bluntly refused to serve, and it was only with the help of some Confederate seamen that an attenuated crew was made up, ar; ! the Bca King, under her new name, Shenandoah, got under weigh ar. . ' ’onfederate cruiser.

Her destination, in conform'tv with the plans of Commander Brook;:, of the Confederate States’ Navy, was the whaling grounds of the North Pacific Ocean. The Northern shipping, partly as a result of the marauding warfare of the Confederate ships, and partly through sheer panic had almost entirely passed from the sea, but in the remoter regions of the Japan Sea and the Arctic Ocean the whalers still remained, and were plying their customary avocation almost unmolested until the Shenandoah made her appearance and spread terror in their midst. These whalers were but poor prizes to pursue, and their destruction could accomplish no

great naval oojecavo, out rue men who manned the vessels hailed in the main from the New England States, “the backbone of the North, ’ and that in itself was sufficient incentive to the men of the South to attack them ruthlessly.

Shorthaiuled as she was, the Shenandoah laboured on as best she could through dirty weather, and, making but few prizes en route, she rounded the Cape and stood across the Indian Ocean to Melbourne. Where, in accordance with plans, she met a coalladen tender, and replenished her bunkers ; but the heavy -passage had told a tale, and before she could embark on the final stage of her adventure certain repairs were necessary. Whether in those days finical fears of infringing neutrality did not worry the Melbourne people, or whether the Shenandoah successfully played some big bluff, we know not, but at all events the vessel was drawn up on a slip, the necessary repairs were effected, and her machinery was thoroughly overhauled. In and around the Melbourne of that day there were only too many wild spirits pining for a chance to engage in any such hazardous venture as that on which the Shenandoah was set out, and to complete her crew 42 “bold boys" were readily enlisted. Finally, after a stay of a month, during which she had been made thoroughly equal to her task, the Shenandoah set sail for her destination.

It is perhaps almost in the nature of an anti-climax—but the war was actually over ere she reached the Behring Sea. Those'were not the days of wireless telegraphy, however, and once among the whalers, the Shenandoah set to work with a will, and had destroyed quite a fleet of them before authentic news finally reached her on June 28, 1865, that the Confederate States had ceased to exist. A sorry plight she was in when the news reached her ; long ago her coal supplies had given out, and now the last hope of replenishing her empty bunkers was gone ; but her commander, Captain Waddell, formerly of the Alabama, was not the man to show the white, feather. He contrived to get sufficient stores for a long voyage but failed to get coal, and putting the Shenandoah under a full head of canvas, he started on a 17,000 mile journey. England was his objective, and in all that long run under sail never a ship spoke the Shenandoah, until finally she made the port of Liverpool, where her captain, in preference to handing over his ship to the Navy of the United States, surrendered to the British Government the only instance of the kind on record. Thus ending a marauding career in the course of which the Shenandoah made prizes to the number of 36 and to the value of 1,361,000 dollars. Of her captures, 31 were destroyed and five were ransomed, and only the famous Alabama and Florida raiders had more prizes to their credit.

There are many misconceptions abroad as to the part played in the Civil War by the Shenandoah, but perhaps these misconceptions may largely he traced to the fact that there were two Shenandoahs. On December 24 and 25, 1864, .the United States Government sent a combined naval and military force to capture Port Fisher, which commanded the approaches to Wilmington—a port thd* Fcderals had never succeeded in effectually blockading. The first attempt to capture the fort failed but greater success attended . a similar effort three weeks later, and on January 15, 1865, Fort Fisher fell. In both these attacks a Federal gunfrigate, the Shenandoah, participated. As a second line ship she played quite a conspicuous part in the second attack, and fired 317 shots, her losses totalling only six men killed and five men missing. It is almost | a certainty that the Confederates knew of the existence of this other Shenandoah, and may they not purposely have chosen the same name for the Clyde-built Sea King with the object of creating confusion ? In the lapse of time it is certainly somewhat difficult to differentiate between the exploits of the two ships, and thus possibly many of the erroneous I ideas as to the Sea King may have | originated. The Sea King the Clyde-built Shenandoah— returned to peaceful. voyagings in home waters, but only j for a short space of time. The Sultan of Zanzibar took a fancy to the whilom warrior, and the outcome of certain negotiations was that the Sea King became the Royal yacht of that dusky potentate. In that capacity she sailed the Eastern Seas for fourteen years, until finally she was lost in a storm.