A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [345]
Once Captain Winslow accepted that the white flag was not a trick, he dispatched two boats to rescue the survivors before they were dragged under by the vortex swirling around the stricken ship. Two French boats also arrived to help, as did the Deerhound, an English pleasure yacht. They were unable to save seventeen of the crew, including two of the black sailors serving on board, nor Dr. Llewellyn, who was last seen clinging to two cartridge boxes.26 Captain Semmes was among the forty-two survivors rescued by the Deerhound. The Kearsarge picked up another seventy, three of whom died soon after being brought on deck. One of the French boats delivered its human cargo to the Kearsarge; the other headed to shore. But the owner of the Deerhound asked Semmes for directions, to which he managed to splutter “any part of Great Britain.” Captain Winslow was outraged when he realized that she was sailing toward England, but there was nothing he could do to prevent the Confederates’ escape.
The Alabama’s crew received a heroes’ welcome on their arrival at Southampton. “One thing is very noticeable, that the destruction of the Alabama is much lamented by a majority of this people,” Consul Zebina Eastman remarked crossly to Seward. “The London Standard says, ‘Every TRUE Englishman will regret to learn that the gallant Alabama has gone to her last resting place.’ ”27
The cabinet’s view regarding the Alabama’s demise was more practical. Lord Russell hoped that Adams would cease making claims for compensation, though he doubted the Northerners would be bought off that easily. Palmerston, as usual, asked what lessons could be learned for the navy: “The Fate of the Alabama certainly shews that the days of unprotected wooden ships are fast fading away, and it makes one rather uneasy about the fore and aft unprotected parts of the [iron-hulled, armor-plated warship HMS] Warrior,” he warned the Duke of Somerset.28
Henry Adams was disgusted with the way the papers were “trying to make a sea-lion of this arrant humbug.”29 On June 24 an advertisement appeared in the Telegraph asking for contributions from army and navy officers to a fund to replace the sword lost by Semmes when the Alabama went down. The press interest was so great on both sides of the Channel, and the reports so detailed and numerous, that Édouard Manet was able to paint a depiction of the battle that persuaded people he had witnessed it himself.29.4 30 Captain Semmes and Lieutenant Kell recuperated at the Reverend Francis Tremlett’s vicarage while the papers debated the significance of the Alabama’s role in the war. In two years the cruiser had captured or destroyed a total of sixty-five U.S. ships, causing more than $5 million worth of losses to the Northern merchant marine trade. Had Britain behaved with propriety, was she blameless over the existence of the Alabama, asked several newspapers. The Duke of Argyll pressed the cabinet for an answer. “It will be found important to be able to say that we did our best to protest against the legitimacy of such proceedings,” he had warned shortly before the duel. Otherwise, “in the first war in which we are engaged, ‘Alabamas’ will certainly be fitted out against us from neutral ports.”31
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When news of the Kearsarge’s victory reached Washington, Gideon Welles ordered the Navy Department to fly its largest Union flag. In Baltimore harbor, U.S. troopships sailing past HMS Phaeton hooted and chanted the Alabama’s name.32 Glad to have something other than casualty lists and homecoming parades to report, The New York Times discussed the sinking of the Alabama