On the 3rd the weather moderated, and fortune again smiled upon the Alabama.  The morning watch was not yet over when two sails were descried, the one ahead, the other on the lee bow, each of which in its turn was overhauled and captured; the one proving to be the Emily Farnum, from New York for Liverpool; the other, the Brilliant, from the same port for London, with a valuable cargo of grain and flour.

The cargo of the Emily Farnum being neutral property, the vessel was released as a cartel, the prisoners from the Brilliant being transferred to her, as also those already on board from the other prizes, a change, as may well be imagined, sufficiently acceptable to those unfortunate beings who had now been exposed for nearly three weeks to all the vicissitudes of an autumn in the North Atlantic.  This done, the Emily Farnum was permitted to proceed upon her way.  The Brilliant was then stripped of everything that could be of use to her captors, set on fire, and left to her fate.[8] From the papers taken on board of this vessel the crew of the Alabama learned the good news of the Confederate victories in Virginia, and also of the successful run of the screw-steamer Florida into a Confederate port.  The two vessels also brought to the Alabama a prize, in the persons of four new recruits, which, in the short-handed condition of the ship, was of more real value to her than the vessels themselves.

[Footnote 8:  One of the Alabama’s officers writes in his private journal:—­

“It seemed a fearful thing to burn such a cargo as the Brilliant had, when I thought how the Lancashire operatives would have danced for joy had they it shared amongst them.  I never saw a vessel burn with such brilliancy, the flames completely enveloping the masts, hull, and rigging in a few minutes, making a sight as grand as it was appalling.”]

The barque Wave Crest, of and from New York, for Cardiff, with a cargo of grain, was the Alabama’s next victim.  She was chased and captured on the 7th of October, and having no evidence of the neutral ownership of her cargo, was condemned and set on fire, after serving for some time as a target, at which her captors might practise their firing.  She was still blazing merrily, when another vessel was descried from the masthead, and at 9.30 P.M. of a beautiful moonlight night, a blank shot from the Alabama brought up the smart little brigantine Dunkirk, from New York, for Lisbon, also loaded with grain.  A boat was sent on board of her, and her papers handed over to one of the Alabama’s officers.  No evidence of neutrality, however, was to be found, and before midnight she too was a blazing wreck, and her captain and crew prisoners on board the Confederate steamer.