February 16, 1863, The New York Herald
Our Key West Correspondence.
KEY WEST, Jan. 24, 1863.
During the stay of the United States steamer San Jacinto at this port I was enabled to obtain many interesting particulars from her officers regarding the escape of the Alabama from Fort Royal, island of Martinique, and it is but a simple act of justice to Captain Rockendorff and those under his command that a fair and impartial statement of the affair should be laid before the public.
The public at large are too much in the habit of condemning unheard an officer of the army or navy who fails to accomplish impossibilities. In regard to naval operations they look upon the ocean as a mere pond, and imagine that one of our cruisers, fairly at sea, is able to observe from the masthead, if not from deck, every other vessel on its surface. They also think that a United States vessel of war meeting a rebel steamer in a neutral port should at once destroy her, or, if not, so blockade the port that her flying jib boom should be over one side of the channel way wile her spanker boom is over the other, thus preventing ingress as well as egress.
To illustrate the difficulties that the steamer San Jacinto had to encounter, I send herewith a sketch of the harbor of port Royal, showing where the Alabama was anchored when the San Jacinto made her appearance, and the course she pursued in making her escape, and also the position the San Jacinto was compelled to take by order of the Governor of Martinique. It must be taken into consideration that the mouth of the harbor at Fort Royal is six miles in width and deep water on all parts of it. If the San Jacinto had attempted to run into our attack the Alabama, war with France would have been the inevitable result. Napoleon would have been delighted at the opportunity thus afforded. Captain Rockendorff cruised off the harbor on the limit ordered by the Governor, and used every precaution, by stationing picket boats to give the alarm, to prevent the Alabama’s escape, if possible. When the signal was given and the San Jacinto started to chase in the direction indicated, she might have been successful had she possessed the necessary speed in overtaking the Alabama; but it must be known that the San Jacinto, under the most favorable circumstances, with smooth water and plenty of steam, can only obtain a speed of ten and a half knots, while at the same time the Alabama would be going fourteen.
An attack upon the Alabama in the harbor of Fort Royal by the San Jacinto would have drawn upon the latter vessel the fire of two very heavy fortifications – Fort Nigri and Fort St. Louis – besides creating war with France. And it is doubtful if such an attack would have been successful; for the 290 had steam up, and could have slipped her chain and started ahead before our ship could have accomplished her object.
We are, I know, given to recalling and dismissing officers upon the suspicion of having violated international law, as in the case of Captain Hunter, of the Montgomery; and at the same time the public demand that an officer shall be dismissed if he does not, when the opportunity offers, violate the law of nations. What are our officers to do under the circumstances? They are between two fires, and, no matter what course they pursue, bring themselves either under the displeasure of the government or the people.
It is unfair and unjust t blame the officers of the navy for affairs of this kind. Give them the material to work with – vessels with equal speed of the enemy – and what can be will be accomplished. The blame should be attached to those who have furnished such abortions to the navy as have been purchased and built since the war commenced, and not to the officers who command them. I contend that Captain Rockendorff did all that man could do under the circumstances, and I believe that any one understanding the affair will say the same. The Alabama took advantage of a dark night and her great speed to escape, and Captain Rockendorff, or captain anybody else, with a half dozen San Jacintos, could not have prevented it. Put the smartest man in all creation on a dark night in the centre of Broadway opposite the Astor House, extinguish every light in the neighborhood, and demand that he shall prevent another man, equally smart from passing him and escaping up the Bowery, and see how often he can accomplish it. A boy may be stationed on each curbstone, with a Roman candle, to give signal as the man to be pursued passes him; but with this precaution even nine hundred and ninety-nine times in a thousand the pursuer will be disappointed. Such is the case of the San Jacinto and Alabama in the harbor of Fort Royal.
The officers of the navy of the United States are as brave and energetic men as can be found anywhere. They are heart and soul in the work before them; they shrink at no difficulty or danger; they are willing to encounter any amount of peril and hardship, and only ask that the tools they have to work with may be equal to those of the enemy. They also ask their countrymen not to be too hasty in forming an opinion, but to wait patiently and hear both sides before saying who is right and who is wrong. Give our officers such ships as the Alabama and Oreto are for speed, and a rebel vessel cannot and will not exist upon the surface of the ocean.
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