At that time Commander George H. Preble was in charge of the station, and he had the _Oneida_ and _Winona_ under him. Seeing a boat exactly like a British gunboat, and under British colors, and knowing that British gun-boats were frequently sent alongshore to see whether the ports were really blockaded, Preble was deceived. He called his men to quarters and approached the stranger, but did not seem to have been suspicious when he saw that she was running at full speed and had no men on deck. He hailed her when near enough, and got no reply. Then he fired, in rather slow succession, three shots across her bow. As she still kept on he opened on her with a broadside, and the _Winona_ joined in. The _Florida_ was but 300 yards away, and yet so wretched was the American marksmanship, that the broadsides cut the rigging and tore away the upper part of her bulwarks. One shell did, indeed, pass through and through the _Florida_ near the water-line, to explode beyond her, but it did her no material damage. She passed in clear. The remarks which all the writers on the subject make about the narrow margin of luck in the time fuse of that one shell are not adapted to increase one’s respect for the ability of the gunners. It is a fact, as already noted, that the gunners of the war of 1861 were not to be compared in skill with those of 1812. And this is a subject that cannot be impressed deeply enough on the minds of American readers. For we may shout “Tirez! Tirez toujour!” as the Frenchman did, till we are blind, and still suffer defeat unless we can hit the target when we fire. As between John N. Maffitt, sitting alone on deck because unable to stand--alone save for the man at the wheel--while his ship made that desperate dash for home, and the Union forces wasting their ammunition on the salt-sea air, one cannot hesitate long in bestowing his sympathy even if Maffitt was an enemy of the flag. It was a most heroic deed on one side and a sorry exhibit of incompetence on the other. On the other hand, when Preble was dismissed the punishment was unjust, for he had done his duty as he saw it. He had given his men all the target practice that the regulations provided. The fault was not in the man, but in the naval regulations that are careful to provide that every man blacks his shoes daily and limit the target practice of the gunners to, say, ten shots a year. When Maffitt had recruited his health and a good crew, he found the blockading squadron increased, among other ships, by the _Cuyler_, Capt. Francis Winslow, that, because of her speed, was sent there especially to take him should he run out. But little that worried Maffitt. At 2 o’clock on the morning of January 16, 1863, he was ready, and out he went. [Illustration: The _Florida_ Running the Blockade at Mobile. _After a painting by R. S. Floyd._]