It sets forth that this steamer, laden with cotton and a large number of
passengers, whilst on her voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, to Nassau,
and near the island of Eleuthera, a British possession in the Bahamas, was
chased by a United States war steamer, believed to be the Rhode Island; that
the Margaret and Jessie continued on her course toward the said island thus
pursued, and fired at from time to time, until she had approached within 300
yards of the beach; fearing to run nearer, she changed her course, coasting
along the island at the distance of from 300 to 500 yards from the
shore.
That, notwithstanding the confederate ship was thus, beyond mistake or
dispute, within British jurisdiction, the United States war vessel continued
the pursuit, having changed her course to conform to that of the confederate
steamer, continuing to fire shot and shell until the latter was struck,
disabled, and sunk; at the time of which occurrence the Rhode Island was so
near to the shore that a number of shot from her struck the shore inland,
cutting the trees and ploughing up the soil.
I am further informed by our commercial agent that measures were to be taken
by him to procure the testimony of many residents of the island who
witnessed the affair, and which, if received, I shall have the honor to
transmit to your lordship. In the mean time the protest herewith will be
sufficient, at least, to lay the foundation of proper inquiry on the part of
her Majesty’s government, and, if the facts are found correctly stated, will
establish a claim for adequate compensation to the owners and others who
have sustained injury by this outrage.
[Enclosure in No. 4.]
Protest of the master and crew of the confederate steamship Margaret
and Jessie.
Bahama Islands,
New Providence.
By this public instrument of declaration and protest be it known and made
manifest that on Tuesday, the 2d day of June, in the year of our Lord
1863, personally came and appeared before me, Bruce Lockhart Burnside, a
notary public by lawful authority appointed, duly admitted and sworn,
residing and practicing in the city of Nassau, in the island of New
Providence, William Wilson, the master of the steamship Margaret and
Jessie, of and belonging to the port of Charleston, in the State of
South Carolina, Confederate States of America, and caused a protest to
be duly noted before me, the said notary, against the acts and deeds of
the captain or other officer in charge of a certain vessel-of-war of and
belonging to the United States of America, occasioning injury to the
said steamship Margaret and Jessie, and thereby entailing loss and
damage to the owners and others interested in the said steamship and the
cargo on board of her laden. And now on this day, being Friday, the 5th
day of June, in the year aforesaid, again came and appeared the said
William Wilson, the master, and James Forbes, first mate, Christopher
Cowper, second mate, John Fitzgerald, third mate, Thomas Plane, purser,
John Blackley, carpenter, Robert Warner Lockwood, pilot, Octavius Henry
Dorsett, coasting pilot, Peter Skues, chief engineer, John Scott, second
engineer, Thomas Russell, third engineer, Samuel Johnson, fourth
engineer, John McLean, fireman, and Joseph Gilbraith, fireman, of and
belonging to the said steamship, who, of their own free will and
voluntary accord, did solemnly declare, such declaration being made in
pursuance of the laws of the Bahamas for substituting a declaration in
lieu of an oath in certain cases.
That these declarants, and the rest of the crew of the said steamship
Margaret and Jessie, sailed in and on board of her on Wednesday, the
27th day of May last past, from the port of Charleston, in the State of
South Carolina, one of the Confederate States of America, with a cargo
consisting of 730 bales of cotton, and with 16 passengers, bound on a
voyage to Nassau, in the island of New Providence, one of the said
Bahama islands, the said steamship, at the time of her departure as
aforesaid, being tight, staunch, strong, and seaworthy, and in every
respect fitted, equipped, manned, and found for the prosecution of the
aforesaid voyage.
That nothing material occurred. They encountered heavy weather until the
forenoon of Saturday, the 31st day of May, about 10 a. m., civil time,
the Margaret and Jessie then being about ninety miles to the north and
east of the island of Abaco, one of the Bahama islands, and then
steering a south-by-west course to make the land of Eleuthera, also one
of the Bahama islands, the territory of her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain, then distant about twenty-five miles, a steamship was observed
to the leeward of the Margaret and Jessie, heading eastwardly across her
stern. That about a quarter of an hour after the said steamship had been
first observed by the parties on board of the Margaret and Jessie, she
was seen to change her course and give chase to the Margaret and Jessie,
the master of which, suspecting that the other vessel was a
vessel-of-war of the United States, and that the intention was to make a
prize of his vessel, ordered her to be put at full speed for the land of
Eleuthera, then being a part of the neutral territory of her Britannic
Majesty the Queen of England.
That the said vessel-of-war continued to chase the Margaret and Jessie,
but at no time succeeded in approaching nearer to her than four miles
until, about 12½ o’clock noon of that day, the Margaret and Jessie being
distant from the
[Page 781]
mainland of
Eleuthera, which she was then fast approaching, about five miles, and
the vessel-of-war distant astern of the Margaret and Jessie about four
miles, a shot was fired from the vessel-of-war which fell short of the
Margaret and Jessie; that the Margaret and Jessie was still run direct
for the land, and arrived within the territorial limit of three miles
shortly after, in the mean time the vessel-of-war firing shot after shot
at her.
That from the time the Margaret and Jessie arrived within such
territorial limit as aforesaid, the Margaret and Jessie being hemmed in
by the land, the vessel-of-war was enabled to approach nearer to her,
and the Margaret and Jessie was consequently taken to within 300 yards
of the shore.
That from the time the Margaret and Jessie arrived within such
territorial limit as aforesaid until she was taken to within such
distance of 300 yards from the land as before mentioned, no cessation
whatever was made in the discharge from the war-vessel of shot and
shell, many of which passed over the Margaret and Jessie, and struck and
exploded upon the land which lay within her range.
That the steamship Margaret and Jessie having arrived within the distance
of 300 yards as aforesaid, her course was at once changed to prevent her
grounding on the rocks, and she was coasted along the land in a
westwardly direction, keeping within that distance from the land,
notwithstanding which no cessation was made in the discharge at her of
shot and shell from the war-vessel, which approached to within 500 yards
of the Margaret and Jessie, and coasted along with her for an hour and a
half, incessantly discharging shot, shell, and what appeared to these
declarants to be grape and canister.
That the Margaret and Jessie, from her close proximity to the land, took
the bottom on several occasions, and many of the shot and shell
discharged at her passed over and struck against the land of Eleuthera;
that at about thirty minutes past 3 p. m., the Margaret and Jessie then
being not over 300 yards from the beach, a seven-inch spherical shell,
discharged from the vessel-of-war, struck her on the starboard side,
just below the water-line, and entered her boiler, causing the steam to
escape, thereby severely injuring one of her engineers, and the water to
flow into the ship, and the said declarant, William Wilson, then at once
ordered the wheel to be put astarboard, but before the order could be
obeyed the ship ran upon the ground and filled with water not 300 yards
from the beach, the position being a little to the east of a point of
land known as James’s Point, on the north side of the island of
Eleuthera, one of the Bahama islands.
And the declarants did further declare that whilst the said merchant-ship
Margaret and Jessie and the said vessel-of-war of the United States of
America were both within the territorial jurisdiction of her Majesty the
Queen of Great Britain, as hereinbefore detailed, they, the said parties
on board of the said vessel-of-war, then being officers in the naval
service of the United States of America, in violation of the municipal
laws of the said territory of her Majesty the Queen, did feloniously
discharge against the said parties, then being on board of the said
steamship Margaret and Jessie, certain cannons then loaded with
gunpowder and shot, shell, shrapnell, and other deadly missiles, with
intent thereby the said parties on board of the said merchant-ship
Margaret and Jessie, or some of them, to kill and murder.
That from the time the said vessel-of-war entered within the distance of
three miles from the land until the time that a shot from her sunk the
Margaret and Jessie, as before set forth, the American ensign was flying
at her main peak, she being a brig-rigged steam-vessel propelled by
side-wheels, with a beam-engine above the deck; that when a shot
propelled from a gun on board of her struck the Margaret and Jessie,
she, the said war-vessel, was distant from the mainland of Eleuthera not
500 yards; but so soon as it was observed by the parties on board of the
war-vessel that the Margaret and Jessie had been driven ashore and sunk,
the vessel-of-war was headed to sea, and having proceeded to
[Page 782]
the distance of about a mile
from where the Margaret and Jessie lay, she, the vessel-of-war, was
brought to anchor, and two armed boats despatched to the Margaret and
Jessie, which rowed around her; in the said boats were officers in the
uniform of the navy of the United States; and this declarant, the said
James Forbes, inquired of one of the officers what ship-of-war that was,
and was answered that it was the United States vessel-of-war Savannah,
but these declarants believe that in truth and in fact the vessel-of-war
was the United States vessel-of-war Rhode Island, and not the
Savannah.
And these declarants did further declare that the master and crew of the
said steamship, with the passengers, upon observing the armed boats
proceeding for the steamship, all quitted her and landed on the shore.
That shortly after parties of wreckers from inland came down, and the
said steamship was given up to them to work in endeavoring to save the
cargo, and, if possible, to get her off; that the said parties
immediately commenced working, and, with the aid and assistance of
others who subsequently arrived at the ship in wrecking-vessels,
succeeded, after great exertions, in discharging the cargo, and in
pumping the water from the said steamship, after which she was floated
off, and in their charge he, the declarant, the said Captain Wilson
being also on board, brought to this port of Nassau, the passengers and
crew having been brought to this port of Nassau in the wrecking-vessels,
they, the said wreckers, claiming salvage remuneration for their
services to the said ship and her cargo.
And the said declarants did further declare, that from the time the said
steamship quitted the said port of Charleston until she was sunk as
aforesaid, within the jurisdiction of her Britannic Majesty, by a
vessel-of-war of the United States, everything was done by the master
and all on board to conduct her in safety to the port of her
destination, and they attribute the sinking of the said steamship, and
her stranding upon the island of Eleuthera, to the act of the parties on
board of the said vessel-of-war of the United States, whilst both of
such vessels were within the territorial jurisdiction of her Majesty the
Queen, in exercising acts of hostility against the said merchant
steamship Margaret and Jessie, and feloniously attempting to kill and
murder the persons on board of her, she then being not 300 yards from
the land; and to the fact of a shell having been shot through the side
of the said steamship from the said vessel-of-war when such
last-mentioned vessel was not 500 yards from the land.
WM. WILSON, Master.
JAMES FORBES, Chief Mate.
CHRISTOPHER COWPER, Second Mate.
J. FITZGERALD.
THOMAS PLANE, Purser.
JOHN BLACKLEY, Carpenter.
ROBERT WARNER LOOKWOOD, Pilot.
OCTAV1US H. DORSETT, Coasting
Pilot.
PETER SKUES, Chief Engineer.
JOHN SCOTT, Second Engineer.
THOMAS RUSSELL, Third Engineer.
SAMUEL JOHNSON, Fourth Engineer.
JOHN McLEAN.
his
JOSEPH + GILBRAITH.
mark.
Wherefore the said master has desired me, the said notary, to
protest, and I do by these presents solemnly and formally protest
and declare against the acts and deeds of the persons on board of
the said vessel-of-war, and against all and every act, matter, and
thing occasioning, as aforesaid, loss and damage to the said
steamship, to the intent that it may be submitted unto, suffered,
and borne by those to whom it shall of right belong, or in anywise
concern.
[Page 783]
In testimony whereof, the said declarants have hereunto set their
hands, and I, the said notary, my hand and seal notarial, this 5th
day of June, in the year of our Lord 1863.
B. L. BURNSIDE, Notary
Public.
Bahama Islands,
New Providence.
To all to whom these presents shall come: I, Bruce Lockhart Burn
side, a notary public, by lawful authority appointed, duly admitted
and sworn, residing and practicing in the city of Nassau, in the
island of New Providence, do hereby certify the foregoing to be a
true copy of a protest duly made before me, the said notary, by the
master and crew of the confederate merchant steamship Margaret and
Jessie, as the same remains of record in my official notarial
recordbook, page 153 to page 160.
In faith and testimony whereof, I have placed and affixed my hand and
seal notarial this 6th day of June, in the year of our Lord
1863.
B. L. BUENSIDE, Notary
Public.
Bahama Islands,
New Providence.
To all to whom these presents shall come: I, Charles Rogers Nesbitt.
esq., colonial secretary of the Bahama Islands, do hereby certify
that Bruce Lockhart Burnside, who attests, as a notary public, the
protest hereto attached, is a duly qualified notary public, and that
all faith and credit is and ought to be given to his acts and deeds
as such.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 6th day of June,
in the year of our Lord 1863.
C. R. NESBITT, Colonial
Secretary.
Bahama Islands: By his excellency Charles
John Bayley, esq., companion of the most honorable Order of the
Bath, governor and commander-in-chief in and over the said islands,
chancellor, vice-admiral, and ordinary of the same.
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Be it known that
the honorable Charles Rogers Nesbitt, esquire, by whom the annexed
certificate is subscribed was, on the day of the date thereof, and
now is, the colonial secretary for the said Bahama Islands;
therefore all due faith and credit are and ought to be had and given
to the said annexed certificate.
C. J. BAYLEY.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the said islands to
be hereunto affixed, at Nassau, New Providence, this 6th day of
June, A. D. 1863, and in the twenty-sixth year of her Majesty’s
reign.
By his excellency’s command,
C. R. NESBITT, Colonial
Secretary.
