BLAKE, Lieutenant Commanding.
Hon.

Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
For a further account of this action from the journal of one of the junior officers, see Appendix.] The prize proved to be the United States gunboat Hatteras, Lieut.-Commanding H.C.Blake, which officer came on board after his crew had been transported, and delivered up his sword.

I said to him:-- "I am glad to see you on board the Alabama, and we will endeavour to make your time as comfortable as possible." The Hatteras had the following armament, viz.:--32 pounders of 27 cwt., 4; 30 pounders, rifled, 2; 20 pounders, rifled, 1; 12 pounders, howitzer, 1: total, 8.
The armament of the Alabama was:--32 pounders of 52 cwt., 6; 100 pounders, rifled, 1; 24 pounders, rifled, 1; 8-inch shell gun, 1: total, 9.
A great disparity in weight of metal in our power; but we equalized this to a considerable extent by the fair fight which we showed the enemy in approaching him so very close as to render his small guns almost as efficient as larger ones.
The tonnage of the Hatteras was eleven hundred tons; material, iron, with watertight compartments; age, eighteen months.

Her crew numbered a hundred and eight men, and eighteen officers; our own numbering a hundred and eleven men, and twenty-six officers.
The casualties on both sides were slight.

On board the enemy two were missing (firemen), supposed to have been killed in the fire-room, and three wounded, one of them severely, and two slightly.