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4 Telescope W. H. Dare. The tugs were to be used to carry supplies through shallow water from the steamers to the fort. The flotilla encountered rough weather as they moved south, and on April 20, the UNCLE BEN was forced to put into Wilmington, North Carolina, because of a shortage of fuel. That afternoon, she was seized by Southern sympathizers, and her crew was imprisoned for their own well-being by the Cape Pear Plying Artillery. After eleven days imprisonment, and through the interposition of persons no less than President Lincoln, Secretary of War Steward, and Secretary of Navy Welles, the crew was released and taken to New York by the ALBA. The subsequent expedition to relieve Port Sumter was a dismal failure. On August 6, 1861, Captain J. W. Livingston, commander of the U.S.S. PENGUIN of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, discovered four negroes in an open boat off Wilmington. After taking them on board, he was informed of a plot by Captain Price of the tug UNCLE BEN which was to be armed by the Confederates, along with the steamer NORTH CAROLINA, to capture the PENGUIN. The tug was armed with one gun, but the abortive plot was never initiated. Instead, the UNCLE BEN was used to patrol Wilmington Harbor. We next hear of the tug in a report sxibmitted by Acting Rear-Admiral Samuel Lee, regarding the blockade-runner KATE on September 17, 1862, in which he mentioned that there were two iron-clads building at Wilmington, with only one steam engine, that of the UNCLE BEN, being available. It was finally installed in C.S.S. NCftTH CAROLINA, which was lost at Wilmington in 1861}. On October 25, 1862,a letter of marque was issued by J.B. Benjamin, Secretary of State, Confederate States of America, to Thomas B. Power of Texas, Amos P. Chamberlain of New Orleans, and John D. Freeman of Jackson, Mississippi, as owners of the Confederate privateer RETRIBUTION, then being fitted out at Wilmington. This group of men had originally planned to send to sea a squadron of privateers, the steamers PELICAN, MOCKING BIRD, DOVE, BONITA, and the schooner RETRIBUTION, of about 150 tons. enough, the schooner was the former Buffalo tugboat, UNCLE BENI She set sail for Charleston on November 2i+, 1862, safely S-. blockade along with the P0CATALIG0. She arrived safely at Charleston, where she loaded a cargo of cotton and turpentine. She cleared port bound for St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, arriving there on December 7,1862, under the command of Captain John Parker. RETRIBUTION was described by Commander Edward T. Nichols, canmand-Ingjfthe U.S.S. ALABAMA,stationsd at St.Thomas, on January lii, 1863, as,_ SS as a schooner, with short lower masts, very square lower sails, and unusually large gaff-topsails; her fore staysail comes down to the stem. She has a rounded steamboat bow, without cut-t r?und> overhanging stern, and carries a waist boat, he Is said to be armed with three 9-pounder rifles, and is very -t-hf v ^as Painted black, but it was easy to spot where the hole left by the shaft had been boarded over. Upon arriving at St. Thomas, Captain Parker immediately sold his v^g°£4- purchased the small Danish schooner DIXIE,*' which was I A1* war materials were immediately transferred. United States* consul, John T. Edgar, was much disturbed by this flagrant disregard for neutrality and lodged a