Excerpt from The Kearsarge-Alabama Battle: The Story as Told to the Writer by James Magee of Marblehead, Seaman on the Kearsarge After cruising in the English Channel for some time, there was a report that the Alabama was expected in some part of England, and as the English press made a great deal of talk about the Kearsarge, the Captain proposed to go to Belgium; arriving the 27th of May, 1864, ran into Flushing [holland] and went into dry dock on the follow ing day, more for a blind than for anything else, as we were never in better repair and running order than at that time. The 29th of May the Captain gave liberty to all on board to go where they pleased, with instructions if they heard a gun and saw the colors at our foremast head, to report on board as quickly as possible, as that would be the signal for sailing orders. All went well until the 10th day of June, when the signal gun was fired. All hands made for the ship, and in less than twenty minutes all the crew were ready for duty. The Captain had all hands called to lay aft. He then told us that the Alabama had arrived at Cherbourg, France, for repairs, and now was the time for us to strike. Then we gave three cheers, 'spliced the main brace, ' and the next tide we hauled out of dry dock and put to sea, put another 'splice in the main brace' and shaped our course for Dover, England. Arriv ing there the 1lth, at 10 o'clock A. M., took in fresh supplies, and at 12 o'clock weighed anchor and put to sea, shaping our course for Cherbourg. Note. The author does not hold himself responsible for the many bitter remarks concerning Great Britain found in the follow ing narrative. They were the result of the excited feeling in the North, due to the Civil War and the depredations of the Confeder ate commerce destroyers, but in order to render the story of the Kearsarge - Alabama battle as vivid as possible it has been thought best to retain the language of the original account. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.