Lincoln concluded with a twinkle in his eye, “Now, England will find that she has got the South into a pretty bad scrape by trying to administer to her, and in the end she will find that she has only cut her own finger.”
The men burst out laughing. Even Gideon Welles nodded his great bushy beard. If ever there was a flinty New England Yankee, it was Welles. He was a good Navy Secretary and a War Democrat whom Lincoln brought into the cabinet to attract support for the effort to restore the Union. Welles had the wit to use Fox and did so now that Lincoln was in a good mood. “I would like Fox to discuss the potentialities of these ships.” Lincoln nodded, and an assistant went to fetch him.
But Lincoln was on a roll and went on. “It makes me think of an Indian chief that we had out West. He was visited by an Englishman once who tried to impress him with the greatness of England. ‘Why,’ said he to the chief, ‘the sun never sets on England.’ ‘Humph!’ said the Indian. ‘I suppose it’s because God wouldn’t trust them in the dark.’”11
They were still laughing when Fox entered the room to lay out the facts in stark detail. The two rams were iron hulled, 230 feet in length by 45 feet in the beam. They carried 4.5 inches of armor on the hull, which was designed to be only 6 feet above the waterline. They carried four heavy 9-inch British rifled guns, two each in twin turrets in 10 inches of armor. They had a speed of 10.5 knots and a cruising range of 3,000 miles. Most ominously, though, were the 7-foot steel rams jutting from the prows, an innovation reintroduced from ancient times.
“Those are facts, gentlemen, of the ships themselves. The ships are Numbers 294 and 295, and are being built in the same slip as the Alabama. Mr. Dudley’s quick fingers have acquired for us the intent of the rebels. Their chief agent in Britain, James Bulloch, has written, ‘I designed these ships for something more than harbour or even coast defence, and I confidently believe, if ready for sea now, they could sweep away the entire blockading fleet of the enemy.’”
Lincoln calmly broke the silence that followed that announcement. “Gus, when do we expect the first ship to be finished?”
“Our best estimate is late September, sir.”
Lincoln turned to Seward. “Mr. Secretary, have we exhausted every means to persuade the British government to intervene and block the delivery of these ships?”
“Mr. President, we face the subtle but no less malevolent hostility of Palmerston. The Prime Minister works his hostility out like a puppeteer. Russell can do nothing to block him. His Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone, is his ally. Is there anyone in this room that forgets his open endorsement of British recognition of the Confederacy last October?” Seward snorted in disgust. “He openly stated that the rebels had made a government and an army, and infamously ‘what is more than either, they have made a nation.’12 He publicly announced that the Confederacy would win its independence. The announcement caused a sensation in Europe and a case of delirium in the South.”
Lincoln seemed lost in thought once Seward finished speaking, and no one else wanted to break into it. The clicking of the clock filled the room. The President leaned back in his chair, crossed his gangly legs, and put his long hands on the armrests. “Since the early days of this administration, I have done everything in my power to avoid being dragged into a second war, firm in the belief that the Union can bear only one war at a time. That is why during the Trent Affair I chose to suffer the public outrage and return the Confederate commissioners. The British were serious about war, and we were not.”
Turning to look at John Bright’s picture on the wall, he said, “There are times when a policy simply can no longer be sustained. Our foreign trade is in a shambles, our merchant fleet in ruins or fled to foreign flags, economic ruin spreads along the East Coast. There may come a time when I can no longer ignore these injuries.” Looking at Seward, he said, “Mr. Secretary, we must prepare a message for Mr. Adams to present to Lord Russell, a message that his government cannot ignore, that there is a line that cannot be crossed.”
Fox saw his opening. “Mr. President,” then remembering Welles, he added, “Mr. Secretary,” and nodded. Navy Secretary Welles was a man who could be ruffled, if the proprieties were ignored. “May I suggest another measure that could prevent a war even if the British look the other way while the ships escape into international waters?”
Lincoln was intrigued, “Go on, Gus.”
“As you know, the Foreign Enlistment Act was passed some years ago ostensibly to prevent British subjects from violating British neutrality by providing overt military assistance to a belligerent. Unfortunately, for us, the law was written so loosely that the Confederates have been able to sail the equivalent of a commerce-raiding fleet through it.
“The law forbids British subjects and firms from supplying ships of war to a belligerent, that is, ships outfitted with guns, ammunition, and military fittings in general. It also forbids the recruitment of British subjects as crews for belligerent warships. Our rebel friends get around this by building what are obviously commerce raiders but without the guns, ammunition, and fittings. Then as with the Alabama, they sneaked it out of Liverpool Harbor and sailed it off to the Azores, where it married up with another ship carrying guns, ammunition, fittings, and military stores, as well as a mostly British, former Royal Navy crew. The military cargo was transferred and fitted to the commerce raider in short order.”
Seward added, “We have evidence that British officials from the harbor master in Liverpool to the Foreign Ministry itself connived to alert the Confederate agents in the port to take the ship out when our diplomatic pressure became too great.” He nodded to Fox to continue.
“Yes, that is just my point. We can expect the British to try this again. If we intercept the rams just outside of British waters in the Irish Sea, we can seize or sink them easily since they will be unarmed and with minimal crew.”
Seward thumped the table with a bang. “Excellent. Just what I have been recommending to you, Gideon!”
Welles glowered. “And I have told you, Bill, we simply do not have the warships to pull off blockade duty. Even one purpose-built warship is too much.”
Fox had an answer. “Mr. Secretary, we do not need to use such ship. The rams will be unarmed and with only a small transfer crew on its sea trials voyage. What we need is something fast with a bold captain to strike suddenly like a shark.”
Lincoln said, “I like what I’m hearing. Go on, Gus. And what will you use if not a purpose-built warship? And who will be our bold captain?”
“I have him downstairs, Mr. President. It is Lt. Roswell Lamson of the Nanesmond. I took the liberty of ordering him to the Navy Yard.”