On receiving my rank as post-captain, I found myself shelved, as it were, for four years, while waiting my turn for a command.  This was according to the rules of the navy, so there was no getting out of it.  What was I to do?  I consulted several of my friends who were in a similar position, who, like myself, did not wish to remain idle so long, so we looked about us for some enterprise, as something to do.

The upshot of it was that we thought of trying if we could not conceive some plan for breaking through the much-talked-of blockade of the Southern States of America, then in revolt against the government of Washington.  Four of us young post-captains took this decision, and as it would have been, perhaps, considered infra dig. for real naval officers to engage in such an enterprise, we lent our minds, if not our bodies, to certain alter egos, whom we inspired, if we did not personally control, as to their line of conduct.  My man I will call Roberts, whose adventures I now give, and in whose name I shall write.  There are people who insist that I was Captain Roberts; all that such people have to do is to prove I was that ‘miscreant,’ whoever he may have been.  The following is his narrative:—­

During the late civil war in America the executive government undertook the blockade of more than 3,000 miles of coast, and though nothing could exceed the energy and activity of the naval officers so employed, the results were very unsatisfactory, inasmuch as it was not till absolute possession was taken of the forts at the entrance of the great harbours, such as Charleston, Mobile, and Wilmington, that blockade-running was stopped.

I trust that our American friends will not be too severe in their censures on those engaged in blockade-running; for, I say it with the greatest respect for and admiration of enterprise, had they been lookers-on instead of principals in the sad drama that was enacted, they would have been the very men to take the lead.  It must be borne in mind that the excitement of fighting did not exist.  One was always either running away or being deliberately pitched into by the broadsides of the American cruisers, the slightest resistance to which would have constituted piracy; whereas capture without resistance merely entailed confiscation of cargo and vessel.

The vessel I had charge of—­which I had brought out from England, was one of the finest double-screw steamers that had ever been built by D——­n; of 400 tons burden, 250 horse-power, 180 feet long, and 22 feet beam—­and was, so far as sea-going qualities, speed, &c., went, as handy a little craft as ever floated.  Our crew consisted of a captain, three officers, three engineers, and twenty-eight men, including firemen, that is, ten seamen and eighteen firemen.  They were all Englishmen, and as they received very high wages, we managed to have picked men.  In fact, the men-of-war on the West India station found it a difficult matter to prevent their crews from deserting, so great was the temptation offered by the blockade-runners.