CHAPTER XIV.
_Sunday, 24th August--Fairly afloat--Taking command--The white ensign--Mission of the Alabama--The Modern Tar--At the pumps--Blowing hard--A fruitless chase--Short-handed--The Ocmulgee_.
Sunday seemed destined from the very first to be a notable day in the annals of the new Confederate cruiser.
The morning of Sunday, the 24th August, found her afloat ready for sea; the delicate operation of transhipping stores in an open roadstead safely accomplished, a supply of coal on board sufficient for some weeks of average steaming, and six of her guns mounted and ready to cast loose for action at a moment's notice.

The early hours of the morning were occupied in washing down the decks which were covered thickly with coal, and making matters above board as shipshape as under the circumstances could be managed.

By noon this was finished, and all was ready for sea.
A brief space was then devoted to the no less necessary operation of dining, and at noon steam was got up, the anchor weighed, and "No.

290" stood out to sea, the Bahama still keeping her company.
For about four or five miles the two vessels kept silently upon their course, until well beyond all possibility of dispute as to the too well-remembered maritime league of neutrality.

Then as four bells sounded from the forecastle the crew were summoned aft, all heads were bared, and stepping in full uniform on to the quarter-deck, Captain Semmes proceeded in a voice clear and firm, but not altogether free from emotion, to read aloud to the assembled ships his commission from the President as Commander of the Confederate States Steam Sloop, ALABAMA.
As he proceeded, the English flag which had been carried by the vessel during her days of incognito, was slowly lowered to the deck, and three little black balls might be seen wriggling their way swiftly but cautiously to the mastheads and mizen peak of the Alabama.