Federal navies also saw much service on the Mississippi River. A wide assortment of Federal vessels campaigned against such Confederate strongholds as Memphis, Tenn., and Vicksburg, Miss. Some were little more than steamboats converted into warships by means of steel plating and deck guns. Others were sailing craft, with high decks and tall masts. One new type of gunboat made its appearance on the Mississippi: the steel ram. Designed by a civilian engineer, Charles Ellet, Jr., this little ship had great speed and maneuverability. Its principal weapon was a heavy prow, which was used to sink a ship by striking it broadside. [Illustration: Ellet’s steam rams had no guns and little beauty, but by their speed they opened the Mississippi past Memphis for Federal movements.] The Confederacy was born without a navy. Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was never able to develop a fleet that could contest the ever-increasing Federal navy. Lack of funds, lack of shipbuilding facilities, and effective Northern diplomacy overseas restricted Confederate efforts to privateers, to blockade-running, and for the most part, to undertakings by individual ships. Most of the twenty Confederate raiders achieved a measure of fame and success before they were destroyed. For example, the C.S.S. _Florida_, under Capt. John Newland Maffitt, captured thirty-four ships before she herself was seized in Brazil in 1864. The English-built _Alabama_, commanded by Capt. Raphael Semmes, compiled a more remarkable record. In two years on the high seas, the _Alabama_ took sixty-two prizes. On June 19, 1864, however, this Confederate vessel went to the bottom off the coast of France after an historic duel with the U.S.S. _Kearsage_. Captain James I. Waddell’s steam raider, the _Shenandoah_, roamed the Pacific Ocean in quest of Federal game. Her crew bagged forty ships, including eight seized two months after the war on land had ended. On November 6, 1865, the _Shenandoah_ furled its Confederate colors in Liverpool, England. [Illustration: In their famous battle, the _Alabama_ (right) and _Kearsage_ circled and fired for an hour at a range of 900 yards. The _Alabama_ sank after many direct hits.] The most famous Civil War contest between ships occurred March 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, Va. The Confederates had raised from the bottom of Norfolk harbor the Federal warship, _Merrimac_. John Mercer Brooke and John L. Porter had then converted the craft into an ironclad vessel which the Confederates rechristened the _Virginia_. Sloping iron plates four inches thick protected her decks. The ironclad carried a battering ram weighing 1,500 pounds, plus ten guns. On March 8 the _Virginia_ steamed into Hampton Roads. She easily destroyed two wooden Federal warships and ran a third aground.