Sumter's escape, at once gave chase, and although the swifter of the two vessels, after a short time, abandoned the pursuit, leaving the little Sumter free to continue her voyage, as the first sea-rover of the Confederacy. This was on the 30th day of June, 1861.
No sooner did the Sumter find herself free upon the bounding waves than she commenced her work of destruction to the enemy's commerce—some eighteen merchantmen, with their valuable cargoes, becoming her prey within the few months of her Confederate career, from the time of her running the blockade, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, up to the date of her abandonment at Gibraltar.
One of the cleverest feats of the Sumter was her escape from the Iroquois, at the Island of Martinique. Here the Iroquois had kept the Sumter under close vigilance for several days, determined upon her capture whenever she should attempt to put to sea. But Captain Semmes was too shrewd for the Iroquois commander. Realizing that he must make his exit as soon as possible, or be absolutely cut off from escape by reinforcements of the enemy's vessels, Captain Semmes having in the meantime obtained information that a Yankee schooner had been employed to watch the movements of the Sumter and give warning to the Iroquois, took advantage of the first dark night for his dash for liberty. Accordingly, at gun-fire (8 o'clock), after which time the Iroquois was in the habit of drawing within a short distance of the port, the Sumter, with all steam on, sped south. When she reached the Yankee schooner the schooner gave the signals, as agreed upon, which Semmes, with his nautical intuition, at once read as saying: "The Sumter is fleeing south." Semmes thereupon extinguished every light aboard, and, Reynard-like, doubled upon his tracks, rushing north, and, as the Iroquois was racing after him to the south, by morning the two vessels were 150 miles apart.
Captain Semmes having taken the Sumter into Cadiz, Spain, for repairs—she being in a very leaky condition from having run upon a rock at Maranham, Brazil—he was received very politely by the commander of the port and at once permitted to go into dock at the naval station. His repairs made, he returned
