“As for the ships,” writes Captain Semmes in “Service Afloat,” “though the enemy was superior to me, both in size, staunchness of construction, and armament, they were of force so nearly equal, that I cannot be charged with rashness in having offered battle. The _Kearsarge_ mounted seven guns--two 11-inch Dahlgrens, four 32-pounders, and a rifled 28-pounder. The _Alabama_ mounted eight--one 8-inch, one rifled 100-pounder, and six 32-pounders. Though the _Alabama_ carried one gun more than her antagonist, it is seen that the battery of the latter enabled her to throw more metal at a broadside, there being a difference of three inches in the bore of the shell-guns of the two ships. Still the disparity was not so great but that I might hope to beat my enemy in a fair fight. But he did not show me a fair fight, for, as it afterwards turned out, his ship was iron-clad. It was the same thing as if two men were to go out to fight a duel and one of them, unknown to the other, were to put a shirt of mail under his outer garment.... By Captain Winslow’s own account, the _Kearsarge_ was struck twenty-eight times; but his ship being armoured, of course, my shot and shell, except in so far as fragments of the latter may have damaged his spars and rigging, fell harmless into the sea. The _Alabama_ was not mortally wounded until after the _Kearsarge_ had been firing at her an hour and ten minutes. In the meantime, in spite of the armour of the _Kearsarge_, I had mortally wounded that ship in the first thirty minutes of the engagement. I say ‘mortally wounded her,’ because the wound would have proved fatal but for the defect of my ammunition. I lodged a rifled percussion shell near her sternpost--where there were no chains--which failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had performed its duty and exploded the shell, I should have been called upon to save Captain Winslow’s crew from drowning, instead of him being called upon to save mine. On so slight an incident--the defect of a percussion cap--did the battle hinge. The enemy was proud of this shell. It was the only trophy they had ever got from the _Alabama_. We fought her until she would no longer swim, and then we gave her to the waves.” [Illustration: CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS--ATTACK ON FORT PHILIP. _From a Contemporary Steel Engraving, showing improvised warships employed._] The _Shenandoah_ was the name given by the Confederates to the Glasgow-built auxiliary steamer _Sea-Horse_, which was the only ship to carry the southern flag from Dixie’s Land to the Cape, thence to Australia, and up to the North Pacific. She found her chief prey among the American whalers. CHAPTER VI IRON SHIPS OF WAR--_continued_