From the June 7, 1996, Virginian-Pilot (Va.) by Alan Flanders.
The exceptional events surround John Julius Guthrie's life should place him high on the list of national heroes.
One of the strangest ironies of his life started out on routine patrol duty on the USS Saratoga off the west coast of Africa on April 21, 1861. (Remember, Confederates fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, effectively starting the shooting part of the Civil War. Of course, there was no way the Saratoga's crew could have known about it back then.)
The U.S. Navy had been active in the suppression of slavery for the past twenty years. While political debate over the legality of slavery heated up back home, Commander Alfred Taylor, commanding officer of the Saratoga, and his executive officer, John Julius Guthrie, of Portsmouth, Virginia, were on the lookout for merchantmen engaged in the slave trade.
Guthrie was no doubt justifiably proud of his ship as she had refitted at Gosport (Navy Yard, Norfolk by Portsmouth, Va.) before departing for Africa from Philadelphia and carried a number of local men as part of her crew.
Just at the mouth of the Congo River, a report reached the Saratoga that a large ship loaded with slaves was hidden up the river. It was soon learned that the ship was none other than the Nightingale. Despite her name, she was the most notorious slaver of them all.
As second in command, Guthrie was chosen to handpick a boarding party and sail inland and capture the slaver.
--Old B-Runner
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