Charles F. Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
The blockade.—Wreck of
the steamer Vesta.
[From the
Richmond Examiner, January
20.]
We have the particulars of another disaster off the Carolina
coast—the wreck of the Vesta, one of the finest steamers in the
blockade-running line. The incidents are obtained from a confederate
officer, who was a passenger from Bermuda.
The following is a list of the Vesta’s passengers: Mrs. John
Mitchell, Miss Minnie Mitchell, Miss Isabel Mitchell, Mr. T. J.
Leed, England; Mr. Perrin, Confederate States navy; Lieut. J. H.
Gardner, Confederate States navy; Dr. William Shepherdson,
Confederate States navy; Paymaster Moses, Confederate States navy;
Mr. Kirlebane, Bermuda.
This was the first trip of the Vesta from England. She was a
double-screw steamer, perfect in all appointments, and commanded by
Captain R. H. Eustace, an Englishman.
The Vesta left Bermuda on the 3d instant. For seven days she was
chased over the seas by a number of Yankee cruisers, but succeeded
in eluding them, and on the 10th instant made the coast in the
vicinity of Wilmington. Being compelled to lay to, she was descried
by a Yankee cruiser, which gave chase, and in half an hour more
eleven Yankee vessels were pouncing down upon the suddenly
discovered prey. The Vesta, although apparently surrounded, ran the
gauntlet in splendid style, through one of the most stirring scenes
which the war has yet witnessed on the water. Some of the cruisers
attempted to cross her bows and cut her off, but she was too rapid
for this manoeuvre, and at half a mile’s distance some of the
cruisers opened their broadsides upon her, while five others in
chase were constantly using their bow guns, exploding shells right
over the decks of the devoted vessel. Fortunately no one was hurt,
and the vessel ran the gauntlet, raising her flag in defiance,
suffering only from a single shot, which, though it passed
amidships, above the water-line, happily escaped the machinery.
[Page 129]
But the trouble seems to have commenced with what the passengers
anticipated to be the triumphant escape from their captors; for the
captain and the first officer, Tickler, are reported to have become
outrageously drunk after the affair was over and the night had
fallen. It is said that the captain was asleep on the quarter-deck,
stupefied with drink, when he should have put the ship on land; and
that at 2 o’clock in the morning he directed the pilot to take the
ship ashore, telling him that the ship was ten miles above Fort
Fisher, when the fact was that she was about forty miles to the
southward of Fryingpan shoals.
Fifteen minutes afterwards the Vesta made land, the pilot having run
her so far ashore that it was impossible to get her off. She was run
aground at Little River inlet; the passengers landed in boats minus
their baggage; and, although there were no cruisers in sight, and
not the least occasion for precipitation, the vessel, with all her
valuable cargo, was fired before daylight, by order of Captain
Eustace, and burned to the water’s edge. The cruisers did not get up
to the wreck until two o’clock on the afteraoon of the next day, and
then they were attracted to it by the smoke from the
conflagration.
The cargo of the Vesta was of the most valuable description;
three-fourths of it on government account, consisting of army
supplies, and including a very extensive lot of English shoes. There
was also lost by the wreck a splendid uniform, intended as a present
to General Lee, from some of his admirers in London. Nothing of any
account was saved.
