The lookout on the _Cuyler_ saw him coming when he was a long way from the bar, and notified the officer of the deck. Now, there was a regulation on the _Cuyler_ which forbade the officer of the deck slipping the cable until Captain Winslow was on deck to order it done. By this regulation just a half hour’s time was lost. So the _Florida_ was away, passing between the _Susquehanna_ and the _Cuyler_ at a distance of 300 yards while the _Cuyler_ was still at anchor. The _Cuyler_ did get under way at last, and chased the _Florida_ until the next night, when the _Florida_ changed her course and escaped. The _Oneida’s_ crew saw the signal announcing the coming of the _Florida_, and beat to quarters, but remained at anchor, although she was one of the swifter vessels present. And she remained at anchor until 3.50 o’clock, when, to quote her log, “having seen no vessel run out, beat the retreat.” Porter calls this affair “the greatest example of blundering committed throughout the war.” Certainly the captains of the _Cuyler_ and the _Oneida_ were not fit for their commands. Maffitt went to Nassau, where the British population went delirious with joy over his success, and sold him coal to last three months, instead of enough to last to the nearest Confederate port, as the government orders had provided. Then Maffitt went cruising between New York and Brazil. In the course of five months he took seventeen prizes, and then went to Brest, France, where the ship was thoroughly overhauled. Meantime Maffitt fitted one of his prizes, the _Clarence_, with light guns, and sent her cruising under Lieut. Charles W. Read. Read was as brave and dashing as Maffitt. Between the 6th and 10th of May, 1863, he took five prizes, shifting his flag to the fifth, the _Tacony_, and burning the _Clarence_. Then he took ten prizes, including the _Archer_, to which he made another shift. With the _Archer_ he came to off Portland, Maine, and with small boats rowed in and cut out the revenue cutter _Caleb Cushing_. The _Archer_ was a sailing ship. Read burned the _Cushing_, but steamers overhauled him next day and he was captured. At Brest, Maffitt was relieved by Capt. Charles M. Morris, who took the _Florida_ to Bahia, where Capt. Napoleon Collins, in the _Wachusett_, found her. Morris thought he was safe, and with half his crew went ashore. Collins rammed the _Florida_, fired a few shots into her, and took her to the United States. That carrying her home was a very grave mistake will soon appear; for a more open violation of a neutral port was never recorded, and if a naval officer feels justified in such an act he should not try to get prize money out of it, but make an end of his capture as soon as possible. [Illustration: “A Prize Disposed and one Proposed.” (The _Florida_ in chase, having burnt the _Star of Peace_.) _After a painting by R. S. Floyd._]