The semicircular cabin at the stern, with its horse-hair sofa and horse-shoe shaped table, was appropriated to the use of Captain Semmes, and became the center of attraction for hero-worshippers when the vessel was in port. A little forward of the mizzen mast was the steering apparatus, a double wheel inscribed with the French motto: "Aide-toi et Dieu t'aidera."[1] CHAPTER V. DESTRUCTION OF THE WHALERS. The Confederate flag was first hoisted on the Alabama, Sunday, August 24th, 1862. When once the shipping articles had been signed coaxing and persuasion were at an end, and the man with the gray mustache had become a dictator, to disobey whom meant severe or even capital punishment. Semmes says: The democratic part of the proceedings closed as soon as the articles were signed. The "public meeting" just described was the first and last ever held on board the Alabama, and no other stump speech was ever made to the crew. When I wanted a man to do anything after this, I did not talk to him about "nationalities" or "liberties" or "double wages," but I gave him a rather sharp order, and if the order was not obeyed in "double-quick," the delinquent found himself in limbo. Democracies may do very well for the land, but monarchies, and pretty absolute monarchies at that, are the only successful governments for the sea. The hasty transfer of stores to the deck of the vessel, a large part of which had been accomplished in a rolling sea, had not been favorable to an orderly bestowal. A gale sprang up, and the boxes and chests on deck went tumbling about. The hot sun of the Azores had opened seams in the deck and upper works, and the clank of the pumps, so familiar to those who had been in the Sumter during the latter part of her cruise, once more disturbed their dreams.