Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/112

102 Thus ended the career of this historic vessel. The name of Semmes has become immortal. In two short years he captured some seventy vessels, and swept the seas of American commerce. Space precludes further mention of the Alabama. The reader will find in Captain Semmes' "Service Afloat" a detailed and very valuable account of his proceedings.

The Florida was the first of the commerce destroyers of English origin. She was built at Liverpool in the fall of 1861. On the 226. of March, 1862, she cleared from Liverpool under the name of the Oreto. She arrived at Nassau April 28th, and was there delivered to Capt. John N. Maffitt, C. S. N., who commissioned her under the name of the Florida and fitted her out. Maffitt first went to Cuba. Here the yellow fever broke out, and finding himself without the necessary officers, men, and ordnance stores, he determined to go to Mobile. He ran by the blockading vessels under English colors, and anchored under the guns of Fort Morgan, September 4, 1862.

The Florida was here refitted, and on the night of January 15, 1863, she successfully ran the blockade again, and proceeded on a cruise. The following is a list of her officers: Capt. John N. Maffitt; Lieuts. S. W. Averett, J. L. Hoole, C. W. Read, and S. G. Stone; Midshipmen R. S. Floyd, G. D. Bryan, J. H. Dyke, G. T. Sinclair, W. B. Sinclair, and Robert Scott; Engineers John Spidell, Charles W. Quinn, Thomas A. Jackson, and E. H. Brown; Surg. Frederick Garretson, and Paymaster Lynch. Maffitt first cruised in the West Indies and then made his way to the coast of Brazil, commissioning one of his prizes, the brig Clarence, Lieut. C. W. Read, by the way. On the 16th of July, Maffitt anchored at Bermuda, having made 17 prizes, 14 of which he burned. From Bermuda he went to Brest; and there, his health being broken, relinquished the command to Lieut. Charles M. Morris, C. S. N. Morris got to sea in January, 1864, and went first to the West Indies and the coast of the United