120 Southern Historical Society Papers.
ful voyage, was suppressed by the thought that it was only one of the many hardships of war.
HOW CAPTURED MEN WERE TREATED.
We disposed of the crew of the Alina as we did the crews of all other prizes. As soon as the vessel was condemned, they were brought, with their chests and bags of clothes, on board the Shenan- doah. The men and subordinate officers were put in irons; the cap- tain on his parole. In the event of there being any women, they occupied a separate apartment, a part of our captain's cabin. The prize captain, with his female attachments, messed with the commis- sioned officers aft; all others forward.
As fast as we became loaded up with prisoners, they were either landed or transferred to some prize, which would be released upon giving bond to pay the Confederate government its estimated value a certain number of days after peace, or they would be transferred to any passing neutral ship who, for a consideration, agreed to take them as passengers. .
MET NO DECIDED RESISTANCE.
I can recall no instance in which we met with any decided resist- ance; the officers of the captured vessels readily accepted the situa- tion, and seemed anxious to give as little trouble as possible. Possibly they really thought as one of them expressed it that there were too many ships in the whaling fleet to thrive; that they needed thinning out. On one of the ships taken at the same time with several others the boarding officers found her Captain dressed in his Sunday clothes, grip-sack in hand. He had seen a prize on fire and, having taken the whole thing in at a glance, was quite ready with his crew to submit to the inevitable without any unnecessary talk.
HELPED TO FIRE THEIR OWN VESSEL.
Often in getting a prize ready to be fired those of her crew who happened to be still on board of her appeared to take pleasure in knocking down bulkheads to insure a good draught, and in collect- ing and preparing the most combustible materials for a first-class fire. There seemed to be no very great attachment for any particular flag; in most cases, soon after coming on board, whenever we wanted them they shipped with us, and served under our flag obediently to the very end.
