It was done by prearrangement with the officers of the _Rappahannock_, in order to give the latter a chance to put to sea.

The indignant Winslow drove all the French pilots off his ship, and by vigorous work got her off by daylight the next morning.

Meanwhile the _Rappahannock_, which had greatly overstayed her time, was ordered by the French authorities to leave.

Winslow heard of this, and, without waiting for some of his men and officers who were on shore, he moved out of the harbor.

When the commander of the _Rappahannock_ saw the _Kearsarge_ once more off the port of Calais, he knew it was all up and dismantled his ship.
There was one Confederate scourge that had been roaming the seas for months which Captain Winslow was anxious, above all others, to meet; that was the _Alabama_, commanded by his former room-mate, Captain Raphael Semmes.