She was now transferred to the charge of Captain J. Butcher,
late of the Cunard service, her other temporary officers being--Chief
Lieutenant, J. Law, of Savannah, Georgia; second, Mr. G. Townley Fullam,
of Hull, England; Surgeon, D.H. Llewellyn, of Easton, Wilts; Paymaster,
C.R. Yonge, of Savannah, Georgia; and Chief Engineer, J. McNair, an
Englishman. The crew, the greater number of whom had been taken on board
in Moelfra Bay, numbered about seventy men and boys, and were shipped
for a feigned voyage, the Confederate captain trusting to the English
love of adventure, to induce them to re-ship when the true destination
of the vessel came to be declared.
Bidding adieu to the Irish coast she now shaped her course for Terceira,
one of the Western Islands, where she was to meet her consort, and
receive on board the guns and other warlike stores, she had been
restrained by respect for English law, from shipping in Liverpool.
Throughout this run, which occupied nine days, the wind still continued
blowing a strong gale from the southward and westward, with a heavy sea
running, through which "No. 290" dashed along sometimes at a speed of
upwards of thirteen knots an hour. It was not, however, without a
certain amount of risk that this pace was maintained. Amongst other less
serious damages the bow port was stove in by a heavy sea, and altogether
the vessel showed manifest symptoms of the speed at which she had been
driven.
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