William Hunter, Esq., Acting Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Earl Russell to Mr. Adams
Foreign Office,
April 27, 1865.
Sir: With reference to the case of the
Chameleon, otherwise Tallahassee, to which you drew my attention in
your letter of the 12th instant, I have the honor to state to you
that it appears, fronda report which has been made by a competent
naval officer to her Majesty’s government, that that vessel has not,
since the 27th of last December, assumed the character of a
confederate cruiser. On that date the Chameleon, having previously
landed her armament,
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left
the port of Wilmington with a cargo of cotton for Bermuda. At
Bermuda she took on board a cargo for Wilmington, but finding that
port, as well as Charleston, in the possession of the United States
forces, she returned to Bermuda, whence she arrived direct at the
port of Liverpool, having a cargo of copper, telegraph wire, and
tobacco, amounting altogether to about one hundred tons.
The crew of the Chameleon is stated to have numbered forty persons,
all told, eighteen of whom were stokers, and this, the report says,
is not an unusual number for a vessel employed in blockade running.
The greater part of the crew have now been discharged.
Her Majesty’s government have been advised that there is nothing to
show that the Chameleon is not now what she is represented to be,
namely, a merchant vessel carrying the flag of the so-styled
Confederate States, or that any part of her cargo is prize taken
from United States citizens, and under these circumstances her
Majesty’s government have not felt themselves warranted in refusing
permission to the Chameleon to discharge and deliver her cargo at
the port of Liverpool.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your
most obedient, humble servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
