.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The lines for this model were taken from the original Builder's model by William C. Miller & Son. When the Civil War began in April 1861, the Confederate States had neither warships nor the means of building them so they turned to Great Britain, the world's greatest shipbuilding nation, for assistance. Orders for several well-armed cruisers suitable for attacking Union merchant ships were placed in various British yards, the first of which was for a vessel soon to be known as the Florida. Built at Liverpool under a cloak of secrecy and with her true identity hidden by a false Italian name, the Oreto, she displaced 700 tons and measured 192 feet in length with a 27< foot beam. Screw-powered with a top speed of 12 knots, she was completed early in 1862 and left Liverpool in March that year under the command of a temporary captain. He made direct for Nassau, in the Bahamas, where she was armed and formally commissioned
Shortage of men and supplies coupled with an outbreak of yellow fever forced her wartime commander Captain John Maffit to run the gauntlet of the Union blockade of the Southern ports and, with great daring, he got her into Mobile, Texas, in September 1862 where she remained until slipping back out to sea in January 1863. Fully armed and crewed, she now began her first Atlantic cruise during which she captured twenty-five Union vessels including the most valuable prize taken by any Confederate raider during the entire Civil War, the New York clipper Jacob Bell homeward bound from China with a cargo worth $1,500,000. Eventually reaching Brest where she paused for a refit, Florida then eluded the U.S.S. Kearsarge (soon to achieve her own immortality by sinking the Alabama) and embarked upon her return Atlantic crossing. This added another twelve ships to her toll whereupon she put into Bahia, Brazil, to coal and provision on 4th October 1864 only to find the U.S. sloop-of-war Wachusett already there on a routine call.
Astonished by this stroke of luck, Wachusett's commander Lieutenant Collins was determined not to let Florida slip through his fingers and immediately hatched a daring plan with the connivance of the resident U.S. Consul. Before dawn on 7th October, Wachusett got under way, silently crossed the harbour and rammed Florida on her starboard quarter. With most of her officers and crew ashore, the deck officer had no alternative but to surrender yet Florida stubbornly refused to sink. The reckless Collins then further compounded his violation of the guaranteed sanctuary of a neutral port by towing Florida out of the harbour and, by the time he reached Hampton Roads early in November, Brazil and the U.S.A. were on the brink of war such were the diplomatic repercussions.
Florida's mysterious and extremely convenient sinking in Hampton Roads on 18th November 1864 merely added a final twist to her short but highly colourful life. In two cruises she had taken thirty-seven prizes worth $4 million; not enough to ensure a Confederate victory but more than enough to perpetuate her name amongst the enduring legends of the Southern cause.
Shortage of men and supplies coupled with an outbreak of yellow fever forced her wartime commander Captain John Maffit to run the gauntlet of the Union blockade of the Southern ports and, with great daring, he got her into Mobile, Texas, in September 1862 where she remained until slipping back out to sea in January 1863. Fully armed and crewed, she now began her first Atlantic cruise during which she captured twenty-five Union vessels including the most valuable prize taken by any Confederate raider during the entire Civil War, the New York clipper Jacob Bell homeward bound from China with a cargo worth $1,500,000. Eventually reaching Brest where she paused for a refit, Florida then eluded the U.S.S. Kearsarge (soon to achieve her own immortality by sinking the Alabama) and embarked upon her return Atlantic crossing. This added another twelve ships to her toll whereupon she put into Bahia, Brazil, to coal and provision on 4th October 1864 only to find the U.S. sloop-of-war Wachusett already there on a routine call.
Astonished by this stroke of luck, Wachusett's commander Lieutenant Collins was determined not to let Florida slip through his fingers and immediately hatched a daring plan with the connivance of the resident U.S. Consul. Before dawn on 7th October, Wachusett got under way, silently crossed the harbour and rammed Florida on her starboard quarter. With most of her officers and crew ashore, the deck officer had no alternative but to surrender yet Florida stubbornly refused to sink. The reckless Collins then further compounded his violation of the guaranteed sanctuary of a neutral port by towing Florida out of the harbour and, by the time he reached Hampton Roads early in November, Brazil and the U.S.A. were on the brink of war such were the diplomatic repercussions.
Florida's mysterious and extremely convenient sinking in Hampton Roads on 18th November 1864 merely added a final twist to her short but highly colourful life. In two cruises she had taken thirty-seven prizes worth $4 million; not enough to ensure a Confederate victory but more than enough to perpetuate her name amongst the enduring legends of the Southern cause.