Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York. Warburton Adolphus Frederick
direction?
A. Yes, in any direction. After she came up alongside of me, Captain Baker asked me where I was from, and where bound, and ordered me with my boat and papers on board his vessel. I asked him by what authority he ordered me on board, and he said, by authority of the Confederate States. I lowered my boat and went on board with two of my men. When I got alongside, Captain Baker helped me over the bulwarks, or fence, and said he was sorry to take my vessel, but he had to retaliate, because the North had been making war upon them. I told him that that was all right, but that he ought to do it under his own flag. He then hoisted his own flag, and ordered a boat's crew to go on board the brig. Some of them afterwards returned, leaving six on board the brig.
Q. Did Captain Baker take your papers?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recognize Captain Baker in court?
A. Yes. As soon as they secured my crew they hauled the brig on the other tack, and stood into the westward, with the privateer in company. Captain Baker desired me to ask my mate to take the sun, as he had a chronometer on board, and the privateer had not. At 3 o'clock the privateer stood back to find out the longitude; while so doing she got astern of the brig, and about that time the brig Perry hove in sight, steering southward and eastward. When they saw the brig Perry they hauled the privateer more on the wind, because she would go a point or two nearer to the wind than the brig Joseph, so as to cut off the Perry if they could. They went aloft a good deal with opera glasses, to find out what she was, and they made her out to be a merchant vessel, as they thought. Then they saw the Perry's quarter boats, and rather mistrusted her. They backed ship and stood the same as the Perry. The Perry then set gallant stern-sail, and kept her more free, because she got the weather-gauge of the privateer.
Q. At the time of the capture of the Joseph by the Savannah did you observe all the crew, and in what attitude they were on deck?
A. I saw them working around the gun and hauling at it. Whether it was loaded or not, I could not say.
Q. Were any of the men armed?
A. None at that time that I know of; but after I went on board I saw them armed with a kind of cutlass, and old-fashioned boarding-pistols; and they had muskets with bayonets on.
Q. At the time you left your vessel for the Savannah, in what attitude were the men on board the Savannah?
A. They were all around on deck. Perhaps half of them were armed.
Q. How was the gun pointed?
A. The gun was pointing toward the brig.
Q. Who were about the gun?
A. Before I went on board I saw that a man was stationed beside the gun; I could not say which of them it was.
Q. What crew had you?
A. I had four men, a cook, and mate.
Q. Were they armed?
A. No, sir.
Q. Were you armed?
A. I had one old musket that would go off at half-cock.
Q. Was there any gun on board your vessel?
A. None except that.
Q. How many men did you see on the deck of the Savannah? A. Some 16, or 18, or 20.
Q. Were you transferred to the Perry from the Savannah?
A. Yes.
Q. And from the Perry to the Minnesota?
A. Yes.
Q. And from the Minnesota to the Harriet Lane?
A. No; to the Savannah. I came to New York in the Savannah.
Q. Then the Savannah sailed to New York before the Harriet Lane did?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where were you born?
A. In the Duchy of Holstein, under the flag of Denmark.
Q. You have been naturalized?
A. Yes.
Q. In what Court?
A. In the Court of Common Pleas, New York.
Q. When did you come to this country?
A. In the winter of '47.
Q. Did you hail from here ever since?
A. I hailed from almost all over the States. I never had a home until lately. I have hailed from here about a year. Before that, wherever my chest was was my home.
Q. You have resided in the United States ever since you were naturalized?
A. Yes, sir; I have never been out of it except on voyages.
Q. You have continued to be a citizen of the United States since you were naturalized?
A. Yes.
Q. And to reside in the United States?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recollect the names of your crew?
A. No, sir; none except the mate; his name was Bridges.
Q. Is he here?
A. Yes.
Q. When the Joseph was seized by the Savannah, what was done with the Joseph?
A. She was taken a prize, a crew of six was put on board of her, and they started with her to westward.
Q. What became of the rest of the men of the Joseph besides yourself?
A. They were carried on with the Joseph; I continued on the Savannah.
Q. When did you first observe, on board the Savannah, that the American flag was flying?
A. When she was within about a mile and a half off.
Q. At what time, in reference to her distance from you, did she run up the Confederate flag?
A. The Confederate flag was not run up until after I had asked Captain Baker by what authority he ordered me to go on board; then the Confederate flag was run up; that was just before I went on board.
Cross-examined by Mr. Larocque.
Q. Be good enough to spell your name.
A. Thies N. Meyer.
Q. Was there any flag hoisted on board the Savannah at the time she was captured by the Perry, or immediately preceding that?
A. They were trying to hoist the Stars and Stripes up, but it got foul and they could not get it up, and they had to haul it down again.
Q. Then she had no flag flying at the time?
A. No, sir.
The District Attorney here put in evidence the certified copy of the record of naturalization of Thies N. Meyer, captain of the Joseph, dated 28th January, 1856.
Horace W. Bridges, examined by District Attorney Smith.
Q. You were mate of the Joseph when she was captured by the Savannah?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know the names of the others of the crew beside yourself and the captain?
A. I do not know all of them.
Q. State those you know?
A. The cook's name is Nash, and there was another man named Harry Quincy; that is all I know.
Q. Were they citizens of the United States?
A. I think they were both.
Q. Are you a citizen of the United States?
A. Yes; I was born in the State of Maine.
Q.