Adams, the American minister in London, was so well satisfied from information received that she was designed for the Confederates, that he called the attention of the British government to the matter so early as the 18th of February, 1862. But nothing effective was done, and she was completed and allowed to depart from British waters. She went first to Nassau, and on the 4th of September suddenly appeared off Mobile harbor, flying the British flag and pennants. The blockading squadron there was in charge of Commander George H. Preble, who had been specially instructed not to give offense to foreign nations while enforcing the blockade. He believed the Oreto to be a British vessel, and while deliberating a few minutes as to what he should do, she passed out of range of his guns, and entered the harbor with a rich freight. For his seeming remissness Commander Preble was summarily dismissed from the service without a hearing—an act which subsequent events seemed to show was cruel injustice. Late in December the Oreto escaped from Mobile, fully armed for a piratical cruise, under the command of John Newland Maffit. … The name of the Oreto was changed to that of Florida." _B. J. Lossing, Field Book of the Civil War, volume 2, chapter 21._ {24} The fate of the Florida is related below—A. D. 1862-1865. _R. Semmes, Memoirs of Service Afloat, chapters 9-26._ ALSO IN _J. Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, chapters 30-31 (volume 2)._ ALABAMA CLAIMS, The: A. D. 1862-1864. The Alabama, her career and her fate.