'"
We said we would mention that, and we do, as Captain Semmes's last. "The
Dido people," he went on to say, "asked us if we had set the ship on
fire, and I answered we had, and had got the crew safe on board. 'All
right!' was the answer, and we parted. She was a vessel of about 1000
tons." We asked Captain Semmes if he could give us the names of the
vessels he had captured. He answered that he could. "For," he said, "you
English people won't be neighbourly enough to let me bring my prizes
into your ports, and get them condemned, so that I am obliged to sit
here a court of myself, try every case, and condemn the ships I take.
The European powers, I see, some of them complain of my burning the
ships; but what, if they will preserve such strict neutrality as to keep
me out of their ports, what am I to do with these ships when I take them
but burn them?" He then fetched his record books, and we took the
following down from his lips:--"The ships we have captured were--the
Ocmulgee, of 400 tons, thirty-two men on board; we burned her. The
Alert, a whaler of 700 tons; we burned her. The whaling schooner
Weathergauge; we burned her. The whaling brig Altamaha; we burned her.
The whaling ship Benjamin Tucker; we burned her. The whaling schooner
Courser; we burned her. The whaling barque Virginia; we burned her. The
barque Elisha Dunbar, a whaler; we burned her. The ship Brilliant, with
1000 tons of grain on board; we burned her.
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