In this place it may be well to give the statistics of the _Alabama_, since the two vessels were so intimately associated in history.

The Confederate cruiser carried one 100-pounder Blakely gun, one 8-inch shell gun and six long 32-pounders, the eight guns having a total of 360 pounds shot weight, while the crew consisted of 149 men, of mixed nationalities, nearly all of them being Englishmen.
England at that time was less friendly to the United States than she has since become, and she gave most unfair help to the Southern Confederacy by aiding to fit out and man cruisers for it.

When the war was over she was compelled to pay a good round sum for her dishonest course, and was taught a lesson she is not likely soon to forget.

These cruisers wrought immense havoc among our shipping, and Commander Winslow was sent into European waters in quest of them.

He was specially anxious to meet the _Florida_, and followed her from the coast of South America to that of England and France.