222
��Captain George Hamilton Perkins, U.S.N.
��[April,
��qualities. Tlie Chickasaw, too, was not yet completed, the mechanics being still at work on her machinery and fittings, and her crew, with exception of a half-dozen men-of-war's-men, were river-men and landsmen, knowing nothing of salt-water sailing or of naval discipline. But time pressed : every moment was of priceless value ; and Perkins, declining all social invitations, set about with characteristic energy to prepare his ship for the coming con- flict. Nor did his work of preparation and drill cease, either in the river or outside, until well into the night pre- ceding the eventful day in Mobile Bay that was to add another brilliant page to the annals of the navy.
On the twenty-eighth of July, he left New Orleans to join the fleet off Mobile, and on the way down the river an episode occurred that came nigh settling the fate of the Chickasaw with- out risk or chance of battle ; for on n earing the bar, Perkins left the pilot- house a moment to look after some matters requiring attention outside. He had hardly reached the spot he sought, when, turning round, he saw that the pilot had changed the ship's course and was heading directly for a wreck close aboard, which to strike would end the career of the Chicka- saw then and there. Springing back into the pilot-house, he seized the wheel and brought the ship back on her course, then snatching a pistol from his belt, said to the traitorous fellow : " You are here to take this ship over the bar, and if she touches ground or anything else, I ' 11 blow your d — d brains out 1 " Pale with suppressed rage, and trembling with fear, the pilot expostulated that " the bottom was lumpy, and the best pilot in the river could not help touching at times."
��" No matter," rejoined Perkins, " if you love the Confederacy better than your life, take your choice ; but if you touch a single lump, I '11 shoot you ! " Needless to say, no lumps were found, nor that the pilot made haste to get out of such company the moment he was permitted to do so ; neither may we doubt that the recording angel traced, with lightest hand, the strong language used by the nearly betrayed captain !
The Chickasaw arrived off Mobile bar August i, where all was expect- ancy and preparation for the coming fight, a fight which perhaps had more in it of dramatic interest than any other naval battle of the war. The wooden "^ ships pushing into the bay through the torpedo-strewn channel and under the fierce storm of shot and shell from Fort Morgan, lashed together in pairs for mutual support in case of disaster ; the sudden and tragic sinking of the Tecumseh by torpedo stroke, with the loss of the heroic Craven and most of his brave officers and men ; the halt of the Brooklyn in mid-channel in face of that dire disaster, which, with the threatened huddling of the ships together by the inward sweep of the tide, portended swift discomfiture and possible defeat; the intuitive percep- tion and quick decision that literally enabled Farragut to take the flood that led to fortune, in the instant ordering of the Hartford to push ahead with his flag and assume the lead he had relin- quished only at the urgent request of the Brooklyn's commander; the re- stored order and prompt following of the fleet, regardless of torpedoes, on the new course blazed out by the eagle eye and emphatic tongue of the fear- less old admiral as he grappled with the emergency from the futtock-
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