Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I

No. 4.

Earl Russell to Mr. Adams.

Foreign Office, April 9, 1864.

Sir: I transmit to you herewith extracts from a deposition of one Daniel O’Connell, by which you will perceive that he declares that he was examined and sworn before or with the knowledge of officers of the United States ship-of-war Kearsarge, and furnished with the uniform of a United States sailor.

I know not how these circumstances occurring on board a ship-of-war can have taken place without the knowledge of the captain of the vessel.

I am, &c.,

RUSSELL.

[Enclosure in No. 4.]

Extract from deposition of Daniel O’Connell.

A man that was, I believe, a doctor examined me, being stripped, and told me I was fit for service. I then went forward and the ship sailed next day.

* * * * * * * * *

One of the officers of the ship took me (with eight or nine of the men who had come on board at Queenstown) on shore at Brest in a boat, and when the boat had just touched the beach the officer said, “Any of you men that wish can go on there now, but if you wish you can enter on board the ship.” All the men said they would enter, upon which the boat returned to the Kearsarge, and we were all sworn to enter the United States navy for three years, at twelve dollars per month each, and our names were entered in the ship’s books, and we were provided with the ship’s uniform.