listed as the captain of the Waring; his crew of five included Tillman. On T hursday, 3 July, a hor and hazy, light-a ir day, rh e vessel set our for "Mo ntevideo and Buenos Ayres [sic] from pier 10." With little wind, the schooner, filled with assorted cargo, did not make ir our to sea unril rhe next day; the following days brought fog. Sunday morning rhevisibiliry improved as the fog lifted and the breeze freshened. The Warings noo n coord inates placed her at approximately 3 7°N. lari mde and 69°W. longimde or about 350 miles eas t of Newport News, Virginia, and 300 miles south of Nanrucker, Massachusetts. The watch on deck spotted an approaching vessel approximately a mile our. The oncoming brig flew the French flag. H er guns were soon brought to bear on rhe cargo-laden vessel from New York, and a shot was fired across the Warings bow. A vo ice from rhe brig's deck demanded full cooperation, and the Northern crew watched as rhe French flag was lowered and another fl ag was hoisted, represen ring the Co nfederare Sta res ofAmerica. The S. J Waring had met rhe J efferson Davis, a notori ously success ful early Civil War Confederate privateer. The brig was 187 tons, carried a crew of approximately 35 and was outfitted with a pair of24-pound guns, a pair of32-pounders and a si ngle 18-po und gun . Built in the 1840s as a merchanrman and originally named Putnam, her checkered past included a period in the illegal slave trade. This came to an end when she was captured in 1859, co ndem ned and so ld at auction. During the summer of 1861 sh e sailed our of C harleston, South Carolina, and earned an impressive reputation for disrupting the flo w of trade in the Arlanric. Louis Coxetter, the highly acco mplished captain of the Jefferson D avis, and one of her shareholders, rook off the Waring's Captain Franklin Smith and two others, replacin g them with his prize crew of five. Of the original men who had shipped our of New York, only T illman, William Stedding, Donald McLeod and passenge r Bryce MacKinnon remained aboard. Under the prize crew, the S. J Waring set sail for C harleston. She had a cargo valued at $50,052 and rhe vessel itself was appraised at $9,000; each investor would have received about $2,070 ($20,000 at 2000 rates) had the schooner reached her destination.
SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000
For most caprured sailors, a detour to an Admiralty Court for prize adjudication was an inconvenience and resulted in a period of detenrion, loss of wages for that voyage, and evenrual return to the United Stares. A black sailor like William Tillman could expect a much wo rse fate at the hands of rhe Co nfederacy. Co nfederate pri vateerin g spaw n ed scuttlebutt among black seamen th at they ran rhe risk of being made slaves if abducted, especially once separated from their shipmates in a Southern port. In hindsight this happen ed infrequenrly and, in fact, in August 1861, the Negro Seamen Acts were revoked for blacks forced to enter South Carolina as crew on a Northern prize ship. Bur no matter how rare it actually was for a black sailor to be taken into slave ry, it was a very real fear for seamen of color during th e early part of the Civil War.
Tillman Turns the Tide Some prize vessels were lucky enough to be discovered and recaptured by rhe USN avy. U nbeknownst to rhe Davis, the Yankee schooner Enchantress, which the privateer had taken one day ea rli er, was such a vessel. T he prize master aboard the Enchantress wo uld be frustrated, ironically, by Jaco b Ga rri ck, a black steward, later described as suave, composed and resource ful , who managed to inform the crew of USS Dolphin of his vessel's true idenri ry. As steward under the prize crew from the Davis, Tillman 's shipboard duties remained the same. Covertly, in the next ten days he crafted a pl an to recapture the vessel and keep himself out of a Sou thern port. H e had plenty of opportunity to examine the habits of the privateers for, as a black steward, his presence was, by and large, inconsequential to th e prize crew,
The S. J. Wa ring left from this area of South Street on the East River in New York City in July 1861. Here the fast packet Dreadnought lies at Pier 9, at the foot ofWall Street, the bow ofa canal boat visible beside her at Pier 10. The variety ofshipping seen at the piers provided opportunities for African Americans, who often stayed in nearby roominghouses, leaving families elsewhere. (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park)
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