Chapter XVI

Landing and dividing of the cargo--Tampico under the Government of Maximilian--The French commanders and the civil authorities--Mexican tardiness and formality--French impulse--Condemned army stores--Sail for Havana--Father Ryan takes passage with us--He is willing to bear a hand--A sailor's method of dealing with well-meaning busybodies--Arrival at Havana.

On the morning after our arrival a representative of the house to whom we had consigned on the former voyage came on board, and I appointed them consignees of the vessel and cargo. I showed them the manifesto and bills of lading endorsed, which they regarded as constituting full right and title to the cargo. I then directed that the cotton should in the meantime be landed at the yard below the town, where the last cargo had been landed.

When the cotton was all landed, I explained to the consignees--Messrs. G.--my agreement with Mr. R. M. in Havana, and the subsequent action of Messrs. R. and D. G. M. in Texas, and as I had got the whole cargo of cotton into my possession, I might retain possession of it until they had properly accounted to me for the proceeds of the inward cargo, but on thinking over the matter I had resolved not to take any undue advantage, but abide strictly by the agreement made with Mr. R. M. in Havana.

The Messrs. G. were much pleased at what they called my magnanimity in the matter, and said they had no doubt but Mr. R. M. would fully appreciate my action.

I then handed them Messrs. R. and D. G. M.'s letter of August 6th, in which it was stated that one half of the cotton belonged to them, and gave them directions for the disposal of it.

The cotton was then divided into two lots, each bale weighed and placed to each lot alternately. Messrs. G. then took over the half belonging to Messrs. R. and D. G. M., my half to remain at the yard until further arrangement.

The trip being now completed the crew were paid off, each receiving his bonus. They were told that the vessel would sail in a few days for Havana, and they might all reship within that time if they wished.

Some expressed their desire to ship at once, which I agreed to, as plenty of work was to be done in the way of overhaul and repairs to rigging, &c.

Tampico was still occupied by the French, and business went on as usual; but the French troops were being gradually withdrawn, and their places taken by Mexican troops in the service of the Emperor Maximilian, but I rather imagined the zeal and enthusiasm in favour of Maximilian was not so great as we had witnessed when here last voyage.

For some time after our arrival the weather had continued somewhat stormy, and there was something like a dearth of provisions in the place.

The storm which we had encountered the day before we got in, although it had not extended south of Tampico river, had extended far into the interior of Northern Mexico accompanied by heavy rains and disastrous floods. Roads were destroyed and bridges swept away and the communication between Tampico and the interior was interrupted, so that produce from the country could not reach the town. This was said to be owing to the heavy floods, but some whispered that it was owing to the forces of President Juarez, which were said to be in greater force and nearer to Tampico than the French commanders in the district were willing to admit.

Transports had been sent by General Bazaine from Vera Cruz with provisions for the troops and inhabitants, but the weather being stormy there was great difficulty in getting the provisions landed across the bar. There were but few lighters at the place and those of a poor class, and the pilots declared it to be impossible for them to cross the bar in such weather, and the transports had to lay in the offing or stand out to sea with their cargoes on board.

This led to considerable friction between the French military commanders and the Mexican civil authorities. The former seemed to think that the danger apprehended by the pilots was greatly exaggerated, and implied a lack of zeal, and hinted that the want of will barred the way. While the civil authorities supported the pilots in their view of the matter.

Hints were thrown out in quiet corners that there might be more significance in the question than was at first observable. It might be questionable whether the civil authorities were so loyal to Maximilian as they pretended to be, and did not regard with favour the presence of the French troops, and would not have objected to see them starved out of the place. However, it behoved outsiders to make no remarks on the subject, as my mate found out rather to his inconvenience.

This happened in a very simple way.

It seemed he had been in a café where there were some of the bar pilots, as well as some French soldiers, and as the scarcity of provisions was beginning to be severely felt, many questions were asked of the pilots as to when they thought the bar would be sufficiently smooth to enable lighters to go out and bring in provisions from the transports.

The mate who was in high spirits, and perhaps a little exhilarated, made some remarks and began to boast about how the _Rob Roy_ had crossed the bar in a far worse sea than any that had been for the last two weeks and without a pilot.

His remarks greatly annoyed the pilots, who declared that it was because the captain of the _Rob Roy_ was not a seaman, and did not know his duty, or he would never have attempted to cross in such a sea without a pilot.

The mate maintained that it was the means, and the only means, of saving the vessel and the lives of all on board.

The pilots admitted that it might have been the means of saving the vessel and the men's lives, but still maintained that to cross the bar in such a sea without a pilot, was not seamanship, but a reckless undertaking and a breach of the port regulations.

The mate, who was a little excited, began to laugh, and deride the pilots and the absurdity of their red-tape regulations. The French soldiers, on understanding the matter, took part with the mate, and joined in the altercation. High words arose and a general row got up which resulted in the mate being taken to the lock-up.

On learning of the matter I got our consignee to wait upon the alcalde, and on his explaining that it was only a bit of sailor's harmless boasting, and not intended as any allusion to the delicate question, the mate was set free, with a warning to be more careful in his remarks.

Singularly enough, just at this time a small steamer arrived from Cork, in Ireland, where she had been built to the order of the Maximilian Government expressly for work on the bar at Tampico. She was in the form of a paddle tow-boat, very strongly built, of light draught of water, and the paddle-wheels so constructed that they would touch the bottom at the same time as the keel, and so act as wheels in assisting the vessel over a shoal. How this vessel succeeded I do not know, as I do not remember having seen her at work on any of my subsequent visits to Tampico.

When she arrived she crossed the bar, and went up to the town of Tampico.

It was thought then that all the difficulties regarding lighterage over the bar would now be overcome; but not so. Regulations and red tape stood in the way. The civil authorities solemnly asserted that "the vessel was not 'born' in Mexico, and that she could not act as a lighter until she had become a citizen of Mexico."

The vessel was of course still under the British flag, and, according to the laws of Mexico, she must be matriculated and put under the Mexican flag before she could act as a lighter. To have this ceremony performed it was necessary that she should go to Vera Cruz as at the port of Tampico there was not the proper authority to change her flag.

The captain who brought her out from Cork, and who was an Irishman, said he had done his part in bringing her to Tampico, and that he was not going to Vera Cruz, or on any other cruz; he had had cruising enough in her. Besides, she had not sufficient coal left to take her to Vera Cruz and back, and no coal was to be had at Tampico at the time.

The commander of the French troops suggested that as a matter of necessity the rules be dispensed with, and that she should be sent off to the fleet of transports to bring in provisions at once.

The civil authorities, however, most emphatically refused to commit such a flagrant violation of the law, and the correspondence between the French commander and the civil authorities became hot and heavy.

Since our arrival I had made the acquaintance of a New Orleans gentleman, who was a proficient linguist, and was often employed as an interpreter, and was employed by the French commander to translate his letters to the civil authorities from French into Spanish.

This gentleman showed me extracts from a letter translated by him, which had been addressed by the commander of the French troops to the chief of the Mexican civil authorities. This letter I thought something of a curiosity in its way. It was couched in a degree of courtesy and politeness which could scarcely be attained in any other language, and which lost some of its force in being translated. It was in regard to sending off the steamer to the transports for provisions, and was something after the following style:

"Knowing and respecting your unsullied honour and high sense of duty, as also your justice and generosity, I appeal to you in the name of humanity on behalf of those sufferers, and as a matter of urgent necessity I humbly implore, &c., &c.

"Knowing also the wants of the men under my command, and the necessities of the general population, and impelled by the duty I owe to them and to my superiors, I do, in the name of His Imperial Majesty, and by virtue of the force at my command, expressly command you to dispense for the time with the usual legal formalities, and direct," &c., &c.

How this matter was arranged I do not know, as we sailed a day or two afterwards.

As I had to provision the vessel for the trip up to Havana, I feared I might have some difficulty in obtaining the necessary stores owing to the scarcity of provisions; but meeting with my old friend Captain Currie, whose acquaintance I had made on my last voyage, he said these reports of the scarcity of provisions were greatly exaggerated, and that he could easily get for me at a certain store all that I wished, and I gave him a list of what I required.

I was a little undecided about what I should do with our share of the cargo of cotton. I knew it was of much more value at Havana than at Tampico, owing to the difficulty of shipment from the latter port, but there would be considerable risk in taking it to Havana in the vessel, as there were now a great many cruisers in the Gulf, and the _Rob Roy_ being "habit and repute" a blockade runner, would, if over-hauled, be seized beyond question, and as cotton was now commanding a very high price, I was unwilling to expose it to further risk.

It was necessary, however, that we should have something in the way of ballast, and as no freight was to be had, and it would be very difficult and expensive to get ballast, I resolved to put profit and risk together and take a small part of the cotton, as on last trip.

I therefore re-shipped on new bills of lading twenty-five bales of the most inferior cotton, and gave directions for the remainder--which was of high class--to be shipped to Liverpool on the mail steamer, leaving it to the Messrs. G. to consign it to whatever firm they thought best.

I must here admit that at that time I was quite unaware of how little knowledge I possessed of what was called "business" in transactions connected with blockade running.

All my crew again joined the vessel; we got our clearance conformable to law.

About two days before we sailed our old friend Father Ryan came on board, to see if we would give him a passage to Havana. He said since he had come to Tampico that the mail steamer had called, but the sea was so rough on the bar that no passengers could get off to the steamer, and it might be the same next time when the steamer touched.

I asked him if he had not had enough of the _Rob Roy_ and undergone sufficient dangers and discomforts upon her.

He said that the hand of Providence had guided us before, and he believed it would be with us still; besides, he said he had conceived a sort of liking for the little vessel.

I said he was not very fastidious, and agreed to take him. We had also another passenger who had failed to get away by the mail steamer.

The boat came alongside with the stores, and Captain Currie with it to say good-bye to us.

Among the stores were two barrels of salt beef and one of pork; on the heads of each I observed the brand, "Condemned U.S. Stores." I got angry and ordered them to be sent back saying, "What do they mean, by sending me stuff such as that, old condemned United States stores, and charging such a high price?"

Captain Currie gave a loud laugh, and said, "Why W., I thought you was something of a military man. And is that all you know about condemned army stores?"

I then remembered something of what commissariat officers got the name of doing, but said that in case this might be an honest transaction, we had better open the barrels and examine the contents. The barrels were opened, and both beef and pork were found to be of the finest quality.

As any reader might think this matter somewhat enigmatical, I may say that commissaries sometimes got the name of getting the best army stores branded as condemned stores, and then auctioned off for a mere trifle, while they themselves bought them in through an accomplice. It was therefore a common thing for packages branded as "condemned" to contain provisions of the best quality. But as I have referred to this in a former work,[1] I need not here go into a lengthened explanation of how it is done.

All being now ready, we dropped down to the mouth of the river and waited for a chance of smooth water to get out over the bar, which we were fortunate to get on the following day.

As I had learnt that several schooners had lately been captured off the Yucatan coast on the upward run from Mexico to Havana, and these coasts were now pretty closely watched by the United States cruisers, I determined to take a different route this time. I accordingly stood away upon an E.N.E. course, intending to keep as near the middle of the Gulf as possible, where there would be less chance of meeting with cruisers. The winds were light, and we made slow but steady progress without meeting with anything.

We had been about five days out and the wind had almost died away when one day as we were down at dinner the watch on deck cried down that a heavy squall was coming. I hurried on deck, but the squall was upon us. All hands were set to shorten sail, but before anything could be got in, the vessel was reeling along at a fearful rate. She stood up well, however, but the squall having taken us unawares there was some hurry and bustle in getting the sail off her. In the midst of the confusion Father Ryan was very busy running to and fro offering his services. He generally followed his friend Hagan, offering his assistance, but on the whole very much in the way, and I feared the old man might get knocked over and hurt. But Hagan who was up to every seaman's dodge, adopted one which I had heard of before but never saw put into practice.

Calling Father Ryan to him, he gave him hold of a rope and said, "You hold on to that with all your might and be ready to haul when I tell you."

The old man with great willingness held on to the rope, and the rope held him (safe from danger) until sail was shortened and everything got right.

"Haul, now, Father Ryan!" cried Hagan, going to assist him. "That will do. Belay every bit," as he belayed the end of the rope on a belaying pin.

Of course the rope was a fixture and no part of the running gear, but it kept the old gentleman out of harm's way, and he was quite happy in the imagination that he had been of some service.

I have sometimes thought that a similar plan might be adopted with some busy but well-meaning people, who often, with good intentions, put themselves in the way in trying to remedy matters which they know nothing about.

The squall soon passed off, but it was evident that it was the forerunner of a heavier gale, which soon afterwards came upon us from the north-east, and about midnight went round to the north-west, and blew with great fury.

I was very wishful to try if the vessel would lay to in a gale and had her hove to on the port tack. Having only twenty-five bales of cotton on board, and drawing only about three feet of water above the centre-board, she was tossed about like a bandbox, and when the sea got high she seemed to be blown bodily from the tops of the waves into the trough of the sea.

The following day the gale continued with a very high sea, and fearing damage to the rudder, which in these flat vessels is very broad, and being well to windward of our course and the Yucatan channel open on our lee, we put the vessel before the wind, took up the centre-board about two-thirds, and carried just sufficient sail to keep her clear of the seas and she went along very easily without wetting her decks.

This gale--though not to be compared in violence with the one we encountered on the passage from Galveston to Tampico --lasted about five days, and during the whole of that time there was never a glimpse of the sun, and the atmosphere was so thick that we could not see a hundred yards from the vessel.

The gale at length abated, and soon died away altogether, and the sun came out clear, and a fine breeze set in from the south. On getting an observation I found that we were about forty miles north-west of Cape Antonia. All sail was set, and the breeze continuing, in three days more we arrived at Havana.

[1] "Life in the Confederate Army," chap. xv.