She was examined by the officers with their glasses; but they were unable to make her out.

Her ensign was set on a stern pole; but they could not see whether it was the American or the Confederate flag.
"What do you make of her, Mr.Passford ?" asked the captain, as they watched her advance over the smooth sea.
"She is or has been a blockade runner, and that is all I can make out of her," replied Christy.
"She may have run the blockade, fitted in Mobile or some other port as a cruiser, and come out to do what mischief she can.

We may have to fight for our prizes, but the splinters will fly before she gets them away from us," said Captain Blowitt, who watched the steamer with an anxious look on his face, resolute as he was in the discharge of his duty.

"She is considerably larger than the Bronx." "As I make her out, she looks something like the Ocklockonee and the Escambia, which we sent to New York, though they had but one smokestack each while this one has two.

They were about five hundred tons; and I should think this vessel was of very nearly the same size," added Christy.
"Flies the American flag, sir," reported a quartermaster who had been sent into the main rigging to observe her.
"That may be a trick," said the captain, "though I hardly think it is, for she is larger than the Bronx, and need not resort to tricks." A little later, she began to hoist her signals on the foremast where they could be plainly seen.