But the scheme, bold and ingenious as it was, was soon found to be impracticable.

The boats managed to get loaded from the captured collier, but they had then to be warped up alongside the Alabama, and the lowest speed that could be given her was too great for them to be hauled up against it.

So each time, as they were filled, it was necessary to stop the engine, and thus occasion another difficulty.
We now--says Captain Semmes--began to part our tow lines by these stoppages and startings, and it took a long time to get the line fast again; so after a sleepless night, during which, as I lay in my cot trying to sleep, it seemed as if a dozen stentors on deck were rivaling each other in making the night hideous, I sent word to get the boats run up again, and to continue our course to Fernando de Noronha without interruption.
At daylight we made the peak of the island a long way off, some thirty-eight or forty miles, and in the afternoon at 2.30 came to, with the peak bearing S.W.

1/2 S.and the N.E.end of the Rat Island N.E.

by E.1/2 E., depth of water thirteen and a half fathoms.