596

THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS.

during the month of June, five vessels off the coastof the United States, between the Chesapeake andPortland . The fifth was the schooner Tacony, andfinding her better suited to his purpose, Readburned the Clarence, after transferring his gunsand men to the new cruiser. His four other prizeswere also destroyed. During the next fortnight theTacony made ten prizes. The last of these, theArcher, then became a ship-of-war, and the Taconyand the other prizes were burned. Read now madea raid into Portland harbor and cut out the reve-

CAPTAIN JAMES D. BULLOCH , C. S. N.

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

nue-cutter Cushing, but the inhabitants of Port-land fitted out all the available steamers in port,and Read was overtaken and captured.

Soon after these events the Florida proceeded toBrest, where she remained for six months under-going repairs. She sailed in February, 1864,under the command of Captain C. M. Morris. Aftercruising for four months in the North Atlantic ,she visited Bermuda , where she obtained suppliesof coal. During the summer she continued hercruise in the Atlantic , destroying merchantmen inthe neighborhood of the United States coast.

On the 5 th of October the Florida arrived atBahia, in Brazil, where she found the UnitedStates sloop-of-war Wachusett, Commander N. Col-lins. She took a position near the shore abouthalf a mile from the Wachusett. A Brazilian cor-vette, as a precaution, took a berth between thetwo vessels.

The temptation to violate the neutrality of theport of Bahia was too great for Captain Collins,and he resolved to run down the Florida and sinkher at her anchorage. It was his design to give theact the appearance of an accident, but the planwas so badly carried out that the capture of thevessel assumed the character of a perfectly unjus-tifiable outrage. Before daylight, on the morningof October 7th, the Wachusett got under way, passed

the Brazilian corvette, and ran into the Florida ,striking her on the starboard quarter, cuttingdown her bulwarks and carrying away her mizzen-mast. As the Wachusett backed off, and the Florida was clearly not in a sinking condition, Collins firedone or two volleys of small-arms, and also two dis-charges from his heavy guns, upon which theFlorida surrendered. At the time of the capture,the captain and a large part of the crew of theFlorida were on shore ; the remainder were takenprisoners. The Florida was taken to HamptonRoads, where she was afterward sunk by collisionwith a transport. The United States made theamende honorable to Brazil , and Captain Collins wastried by court-martial.

The second cruiser built in England, through theagency of Captain Bulloch, was the Alabama , whosecareer is described in another place. [Seep. 600.]Notwithstanding the very urgent representations ofMr. Adams, accompanied by depositions which leftno doubt as to the character and objects of the ves-sel, she was permitted to escape through the ex-treme dilatoriness of the English officials who hadthe matter in hand at the critical moment. On the29th of July, 1862, the law officers of the Crownrendered the opinion that the vessel was clearlyintended for warlike use against the United States ,and recommended that she be seized without lossof time; but on that very day she left Liverpool,ostensibly on a trial trip, and, after completing herpreparations at Point Lynas, made her way to theNorth Atlantic .

The third of the Confederate vessels obtainedabroad was the Georgia. In the latter part of1862, Commander Matthew F. Maury , who hadacquired great distinction as a scientific man whilein the old navy, was sent to England partly to in-fluence public opinion in favor of the Confederacy,and also with a general authority to fit out shipsof war. InMareh, 1863, he purchased on the Clydethe Japan , a new iron screw steamer. She was anexcellent vessel, although built for the merchantservice, but she was seriously defective as a com-merce-destroyer, from the lack of auxiliary sail-power, a defect which Bulloch , in his contracts andpurchases, had uniformly avoided.

The Japan cleared from Greenock on the 1st ofApril, 1863, in ballast, as a merchant vessel,bound for the East Indies. A shipping firm ofLiverpool was employed as the intermediary tocover all the transactions. One member of the firmwas the ostensible owner, and the Japan was regis-tered in his name as a British vessel, and remainedso for three months, though engaged during thistime in active hostilities against the United States .Another member of the firm shipped the crew, andtook charge of a small steamer which cleared aboutthe same time from Newhaven, with a cargo olguns and ammunition. The two vessels met offthe coast of France , the cargo was transferred, theofficers proceeded on board, and the Confederatecruiser Georgia, though still registered as the Brit-ish steamer Japan , started on her cruise. Hercareer extended over a year, during which shecruised in the Atlantic under Lieutenant WilliamL. Maury. During her cruise she captured only