Mr. Wood to Mr.
Seward
No. 187.]
Legation of the United States,
Copenhagen,
March 14, 1865.
Sir: Your dispatch, No. 103, of the 21st
ultimo, was received yesterdays. From the despatches arid copies of
letters received ere this, and those I now send, you may perhaps think I
have more than anticipated my instructions.
[Page 172]
I am very glad to receive and communicate to this
government your last despatch, as the director general of the ministry
informed me, a few days since, that the court intrusted with the
investigation of the affair of the Staerkodder had discovered “it had
not sufficient jurisdiction” to make the examination I desired. I have
but recently discovered that the Staerkodder was originally intended for
the confederates, and I am credibly informed that the Mr. Puggard I have
already mentioned, a Danish merchant in this city, the consignee or
correspondent of the ship, and the man who procured her crew and liberty
to leave the port under the Danish flag, and whose re-examination I have
asked, advanced large sums of money for the building of the Staerkodder,
knowing that this vessel was being built for the confederates. I have
informed both the minister for foreign affairs and the director general
of the ministry of this.
To prevent all laches I again send a copy of my note to the director
general, of the 25th ultimo. From a translation of Mr. Blumhe’s note to
me, enclosing copies, &c., of the contract with Arman, the French
builder, and other papers, you will see what he says of the affair. I am
still of the opinion that the Danish government was practised upon by
the Frenchmen and one or more of its own subjects, and how far it will
screen the latter remains to be seen.
I have the honor to remain your obedient servant,
BRADFORD R. WOOD, Minister
Resident.
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
Mr. Wood to Mr. Blumhe
Legation of the United
States,
March 12, 1865.
Sir: On the 25th and 28th ultimo, I
respectively addressed notes to the director general of the ministry
for foreign affairs and to his excellency the minister for foreign
affairs in relation to the Staerkodder, and requesting an
examination of the captain and some of the crew of that ship, as
well as of Mr. Puggard, who, I have since learned, advanced money to
build that ship when orignally intended for the so-called
confederate insurgents. In a recent conversation with Mr. Vedel, the
director general of the ministry, I expressed my fears that the crew
of the Staerkodder would be dispersed before any examination of them
could be had on the points I had presented. I am now informed that
one Bolling, an engineer on board of the Staerkodder, will soon
leave Copenhagen, he being engaged on a steamer running between
Cursoe and Keil. I am also informed of some difficulty in the
constitution of the court before which the examination is being held
to obtain the investigation I have requested. I shall very much
regret should there be no examination of the men I have
designated.
With renewed assurances of high consideration, I remain your
excellency’s obedient servant,
BRADFORD R. WOOD, Minister
Resident.
His Excellency Mr. Blumhe,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Wood to Mr. Blumhe
Legation of the United
States,
March 13, 1865.
Sir: I have this day received a despatch
from the Secretary of State of the United States, in which, speaking
on the condition that the facts reported are true, I am instructed
to inform the Danish government, “That the government of the United
States cannot be expected to submit uncomplainingly to the
apprehended invasion of piratical vessels, coming from European
ports, and that it is expected that Denmark will do whatever is
necessary to prevent this, if the responsibility shall be traced to
the government or to the subjects of his Majesty, the King of
Denmark.” I am also instructed to ask an explanation of his
Majesty’s government, and in doing so to inquire how it happened
that, if his Majesty’s government intended
[Page 173]
to divest itself of responsibility, it caused
or suffered the Staerkodder to go into Houat, an unarmed place, not
within the surveillance of the French government, instead of
Bordeaux. I am also instructed to say, “That the government of the
United States deems the time to have come when the maritime powers
of Europe ought to withhold all protection and shelter from enemies
of the United States who proceed from countries with which they are
at peace.”
With renewed assurances of high consideration, I remain your
excellency’s obedient servant,
BRADFORD R. WOOD, Minister
Resident.
His Excellency Mr. Blumhe,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Wood to Mr. Vedel
Dear Sir: From information I have received
to-day, I have no doubt that the Danish captain of the Staerkodder
knew the destination of that ship when she left Copenhagen, and that
an examination of some of the crew will implicate him. I think it
can be shown, beyond a doubt, that he knew the ship belonged to the
confederates when he went into or when he left Nieu Dieppe. I have
reason to believe that Mr. Puggard also knew the character of the
ship. If this should prove true, and the Danish captain has used the
Danish flag as a cloak, does it not only require his arrest and
punishment, but also a request from the Danish government to the
Spanish government not to consummate the fraud, but to retain the
Staerkodder or Stonewall in the Spanish port, where she now is? I
will see you at the earliest convenience, and fully explain.
I have the honor to remain, very truly, your obedient servant,
Mr. Vedel,
Director General of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs.
[Translation.]
Mr. Blumhe to Mr. Wood
Copenhagen,
March 8, 1865.
Sir: In the note you have done me the honor
to address to me the fourth of last month, you have called my
attention to the circumstance that one or more vessels-of-war built
in France, but bearing the Danish flag, have passed into the hands
of the so-called Confederate States; and while entirely dismissing
the supposition of any connivance whatever on the part of the
government of the King in this transaction, you have asked of me
some explanations upon certain points set forth in the appendix to
your note.
Being sincerely desirous of removing any suspicion which could attach
to the government of the King, under these circumstances, I have
endeavored to collect all authentic information upon the
negotiations which have taken place between the government of the
King and Mr. Arman, shipbuilder of Bordeaux, relative to the
iron-clad vessel Sphinx, alias Staerkodder, for it is evidently to
this ship that your note alludes.
In sending you, sir, the enclosed documents, marked by letters A to
F, I permit myself to accompany them with as succinct a narrative of
the principal points as these portions admit of.
On the 31st day of March last, a contract was signed by which Mr.
Arman engaged to deliver on the 10th of June, 1864, an iron-clad
vessel of 300 horse-power, with guns and munitions. The vessel,
which was already upon the stocks, was to be finished under the
control of an officer of the Danish navy, who, in accordance with
articles IX to XI of the contract, was charged with inspecting and
accepting the vessel before she could leave Bordeaux to go to her
destination. The conditions of the contract were not fulfilled by
Mr. Arman. The ship was only finished on the 21st of October, and
she neither realized the promises made as to her speed nor as to her
draught of water.
The Danish officer, Mr. Shonheyder, consequently could not accept
her. Nevertheless, Mr. Arman, hoping to succeed by a direct
negotiation with the minister of marine, in causing the ship to be
accepted, sent her the last of October to Copenhagen. The refusal of
Mr. Shonheyder was, however, repeated to Mr. Arman during an
interview which he had at Paris with the director of the ministry of
marine, Mr. Eckildsen, and the Danish official added expressly that
the ship having left Bordeaux without the authorization of the
proper officer, she could only have been sent at his own risk and
peril as well as at his own expense. The vessel, which arrived at
Copenhagen in the middle of the month of November, was inspected
here, but the minister of marine persisted in refusing to accept
her; consequently the contract was annulled, and Mr. Arman
understood expressly that the Danish government was freed from every
obligation to him under the contract.
The ship must then return to France, but, from motives of economy,
the builder had
[Page 174]
dismissed
his captain and French crew upon the arrival of the vessel at
Copenhagen. He thus found himself under the necessity of engaging
here, through the intervention of his correspondent, a merchant of
Copenhagen, a Danish merchant captain and a crew composed of Danish
and Swedish sailors in order to carry the vessel back to Bordeaux;
which rendered it necessary for him to ask a special permission of
the department of customs, in order that the vessel, though French
property, should be able to leave the port of Copenhagen under
conditions so unusual. Being no longer able to demand assistance of
French consuls in the ports where the severity of the season might,
perhaps, force the ship to seek refuge, Mr. Arman likewise asked for
a letter of recommendation to the Danish consuls as well as
permission to make the voyage under Danish colors. This permission
and this letter of recommendation were given to him, but I need not
add that all the advances the captain should ask for in the ports
were to remain entirely unconnected with the government of the King,
and that it was expressly enjoined upon the Danish captain to strike
the Danish flag as soon as he entered the port of Bordeaux.
I hope, sir, that these explanations will serve to answer the
questions which you have addressed to me. They prove that the
government of the King has been entirely unconnected with the
transaction which appears to have taken place, and that it regrets
it sincerely. I am engaged in taking some steps in order that, with
the help of depositions made before the tribunal by persons
belonging to the crew, there may be drawn up some “proces verbaux”
upon everything which has taken place during the voyage of the
vessel since her departure from Copenhagen, and I wait in order to
send you this intelligence as soon as it reaches me.
Accept, sir, renewed assurances of my most distinguished
consideration.
Mr. Wood,
Minister Resident of the United States of
America.
