Chapter 1

CHAPTER I.

CHARLESTON, SEPTEMBER 27th, 1869.--It is high tide, and three
o'clock in the afternoon when we leave the Battery-quay; the ebb
carries us off shore, and as Captain Huntly has hoisted both main
and top sails, the northerly breeze drives the "Chancellor"
briskly across the bay. Fort Sumter ere long is doubled, the
sweeping batteries of the mainland on our left are soon passed,
and by four o'clock the rapid current of the ebbing tide has
carried us through the harbour-mouth.

But as yet we have not reached the open sea; we have still to
thread our way through the narrow channels which the surge has
hollowed out amongst the sand-banks. The captain takes a south-
west course, rounding the lighthouse at the corner of the fort;
the sails are closely trimmed; the last sandy point is safely
coasted, and at length, at seven o'clock in the evening; we are
out free upon the wide Atlantic.

The "Chancellor" is a fine square-rigged three-master, of 900
tons burden, and belongs to the wealthy Liverpool firm of Laird
Brothers. She is two years old, is sheathed and secured with
copper, her decks being of teak, and the base of all her masts,
except the mizen, with all their fittings, being of iron. She is
registered first class A I, and is now on her third voyage
between Charleston and Liverpool. As she wended her way through
the channels of Charleston harbour, it was the British flag that
was lowered from her mast-head; but without colours at all, no
sailor could have hesitated for a moment in telling her
nationality,--for English she was, and nothing but English from
her water-line upwards to the truck of her masts.

I must now relate how it happens that I have taken my passage on
board the "Chancellor" on her return voyage to England.
At present there is no direct steamship service between South
Carolina and Great Britain, and all who wish to cross must go
either northwards to New York or southwards to New Orleans. It
is quite true that if I had chosen to start from New York I might
have found plenty of vessels belonging to English, French, or
Hamburg lines, any of which would have conveyed me by a rapid
voyage to my destination; and it is equally true that if I had
selected New Orleans for my embarkation I could readily have
reached Europe by one of the vessels of the National Steam
Navigation Company, which join the French Transatlantic line of
Colon and Aspinwall. But it was fated to be otherwise.

One day, as I was loitering about the Charleston quays, my eye
lighted upon this vessel. There was something about the
"Chancellor" that pleased me, and a kind of involuntary impulse
took me on board, where I found the internal arrangements
perfectly comfortable.