Captain Wilkes, a Federal naval officer commanding the West India station and engaged in blockade duties, took upon himself, with more zeal than law, to board the _Trent_, a British mail steamer, on the high seas, and seize from its deck two Confederate diplomatic agents who were passengers from Havana, accredited respectively to the French and the British Governments. There is no doubt that the English nation was prepared to make any sacrifice to resent this outrage, and feeling ran very deep while we waited for the answer to our demands for redress. It cannot be denied that people on the other side made themselves a little ridiculous and irritating over our perfectly reasonable request for the surrender of the prisoners. Captain Wilkes was the hero of the hour, and blustering exultation over England the tune of the street. But in the White House heads were cooler, and in due course full reparation was made. Still the "spoiled child of diplomacy" was not made to apologise—she barely expressed regret, and her omission of this international courtesy, combined with the extravagances of her press, confirmed in many Englishmen their inchoate partisanship for the South. Such was the state of things when, one day early in the year 1862, one of the partners in the house where I was serving called me into his room. After telling me how he and a few friends had purchased a steamer to have a try at the blockade, he asked me if I would care to go as supercargo? The answer was not doubtful. It was a stroke of luck far better than I had any right to expect at my age (for I was but twenty-one), and needless to say I embraced my fortune with alacrity. "By all means," said I, "if I am not too young." My chief was good enough to say that he thought I was _not_ too young, and so I was fairly launched in my career as a blockade-runner. CHAPTER II MY FIRST ATTEMPT ON THE _DESPATCH_ The _Despatch_—A blockade-runner's cargo—The start for the West Indies—Put back to Queenstown—A terrific gale—Arrival at Nassau—The dangers of somnambulism—A haunt for buccaneers—A sleepy settlement—Neutral territory—Southern firms running the blockade—Nassau as a basis of operations—The _Despatch_ condemned—Efforts to meet a more stringent blockade—"No cure no pay"—Yellow fever—Seizure of the _Despatch_—A scheme for her rescue—Her release. Were it only for the glimpse it gives of the state of the mercantile marine thirty years ago, my first voyage would be worth relating. Those who do not know how things were before the Plimsoll Act had made a revolution in Merchant Shipping would hardly believe what a man even in my position was expected to undergo without complaint.