Imagine, then, the keen elation with which all hands aboard the U. S. S. _Kearsarge_ heard at their berth off Flushing that the _Alabama_ was in port at Cherbourg on the Channel coast of France, only one day's sail southwest! And there she was when the _Kearsarge_ came to anchor; and every Northern eye was turned to see the ship of which the world had heard so much. The Kearsarges hardly dared to hope that there would be a fight; for they had the stronger vessel, and now the faster one as well. The _Alabama_ had been built for speed; but she had knocked about so much without a proper overhaul that her copper sheathing was in rags, while she was more or less strained in nearly every other part. The _Kearsarge_, on the other hand, was in good order, with mantlets of chain cable protecting her vitals, with one-third greater horse power, with fourteen more men in her crew, and with two big pivot guns throwing eleven inch shells with great force at short ranges. Moreover, the _Kearsarge_, with her superior speed and stronger hull, could choose the range and risk close quarters. The Alabamas were also keen to estimate respective strengths. But the French authorities naturally kept the two ships pretty far apart; so the Alabamas never saw the chain mantlets which the Kearsarges had cleverly hidden under a covering of wood that appeared to be flush with the hull. The Kearsarges had a second and still more elating surprise when they heard the _Alabama_ was coming out to fight. Semmes was apparently anxious to show that his raider could be as gallant in fighting a man-of-war as she was effective in sinking merchant vessels; so he wrote his challenge to the Confederate Consul at Cherbourg, who passed it on to the U. S. Consul, who handed it to Captain Winslow, commanding the _Kearsarge_. Still, four days passed without the _Alabama_; and the Kearsarges were giving up hope, when, suddenly, on Sunday morning, the nineteenth of June, just as they had rigged church and fallen in for prayers, out came the _Alabama_. The _Kearsarge_ thereupon drew off, so that the _Alabama_ could not easily escape to neutral waters if the duel went against her. Cherbourg, of course, was all agog to see the fight; and many thousands of people, some from as far as Paris, watched every move. An English yacht, the _Deerhound_, kept an offing of about a mile, ready to rescue survivors from a watery grave. Its owner, with his wife and family, had intended to stay ashore and go to church. But, when they heard the _Alabama_ was really going out, he put the question to the vote around the breakfast-table, whereupon it was carried unanimously that the _Deerhound_ should go too.