He got her into shape somehow, and she began her adventurous career by running the blockade in a most daring fashion at Pass a l’Outre, in spite of the presence of the _Brooklyn_, which was faster and more heavily armed. She beat the northern ship simply because she could sail nearer to the wind. After six months’ experience of this ship, he says that “in her best days the _Sumter_ had been very inefficient, being always anchored, as it were, in the deep sea, by her propeller whenever she was out of coal. A fast ship propelled entirely by sail power would have been better.” She captured seventeen ships, consistently dodged five or six northern ships, and at last had to be laid up at Gibraltar. She afterwards sailed as the _Gibraltar_ under the English flag as a merchant vessel, and made one successful voyage as a blockade runner to Charleston, South Carolina, and went to the bottom of the North Sea soon afterwards. The _Sumter’s_ battery consisted of an 8-inch shell gun pivoted amidships and four 32-pounders of 13 cwt. each for broadside firing. The slide and circle for the pivot gun were constructed of railway iron. She captured seven prizes in two days, and escorted six of them into the harbour of Cienfuegos at once. The _Alabama_ was built at Birkenhead under a contract with the Confederate States, and was paid for out of the Confederate treasury. “The _Alabama_ had been built in perfect good faith by the Lairds. When she was contracted for, no question had been raised as to the right of a neutral to build and sell to a belligerent such a ship.”[40] Be that as it may, the settlement of the _Alabama_ claims proved an expensive item for Great Britain. She was responsible for the destruction of no fewer than sixty-seven American ships, and such was the terror she inspired that the armed frigate _Kearsarge_ was sent to hunt her down and exterminate her. Soon after embarking on her privateering, the _Alabama_ fought and sank the _Hatteras_ in the only engagement she was concerned in until she met her fate at the guns of the _Kearsarge_. There was not much to choose between the ships in size, but in all other respects the advantage lay with the northern ship, which had further strengthened her sides with a concealed belt of chain cables.