Editing CSS Florida (cruiser) (section)

==Service history==
''Florida'' was built by the [[United Kingdom|British]] firm [[William C. Miller & Sons]] of [[Toxteth]], [[Liverpool]]. Launched in December 1861,<ref name=LM091261>{{Cite news |title=Launch of a Clipper Screw Steamer |newspaper=Liverpool Mercury |location=Liverpool |date=9 December 1861 |issue=4314 }}</ref> she was purchased by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] from Fawcett, Preston & Co., also of Liverpool, who provided her engines. Known in the shipyard as ''Oreto'' and initially called {{ship|CSS|Manassas}} by the Confederates, the ship was the first of several foreign-built commerce raiders commissioned as into the Confederate States Navy as CSS ''Florida''. [[Union Navy|Union naval]] records often referred to her as ''Oreto'' or confused her with {{ship|CSS|Alabama}}, another Confederate vessel.

''Florida'' departed [[England]] on 22 March 1862, bound for [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]] in the [[The Bahamas|Bahamas]]. To avoid suspicions that she was destined for Confederate service, the ship was only loaded with enough coal to reach Nassau. However, once in Nassau she planned to meet with a Confederate ship, take on a portion of that ship's coal, and use the additional fuel to steam to the nearest Confederate port. However, having been built under foreign licence, she was the subject of much diplomatic and intelligence correspondence.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|year=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=381|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n388/mode/1up}}</ref> The governor of Nassau prevented ''Florida'' from attempting a rendezvous with her planned tender in Nassau harbor, so the two ships met instead near the more isolated [[Green Cay]]. There, stores, armaments, and coal were taken aboard the ship. While anchored off Green Cay, she was officially commissioned into the Confederate States Navy as CSS ''Florida'' on August 17, with [[Lieutenant]] [[John Newland Maffitt (privateer)|John Newland Maffitt]] in command.

During her outfitting, [[yellow fever]] raged among her crew, in five days reducing her effective force to one fireman and four deckhands. In desperate plight she ran across to the [[Kingdom of Spain|Spanish]] colony of [[Cuba]]. In [[Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba|Cárdenas]], Lieutenant Maffitt too was stricken with the disease.

In this condition, against all probability, Maffitt sailed her from Cárdenas to [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], [[Alabama]]. In an audacious dash, the "Prince of Privateers" braved a hail of projectiles from the Union [[blockade]]rs and raced through them to anchor beneath the guns of [[Fort Morgan (Alabama)|Fort Morgan]] in [[Mobile Bay]], where she was received with a hero's welcome by the war-weary citizens of Mobile. ''Florida'' had been unable to fight back not only because of sickness but because [[rammer]]s, sights, beds, locks and [[Quoin (gunnery)|quoins]] - necessary to use her guns - had, inadvertently, not been loaded in the Bahamas. Having resupplied her stores armed with the gun accessories she lacked, along with added crew members, ''Florida'' escaped to sea on January 16, 1863 under (now) Captain John Newland Maffitt.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|year=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=600|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n607/mode/1up}}</ref>

After coaling at Nassau, she spent six months off the coasts of North and South America and in the [[West Indies]], with calls at neutral ports, all the while making captures and eluding the large Federal squadron pursuing her.

''Florida'' sailed on July 27, 1863 from [[Bermuda]] for [[Brest, France|Brest]], [[France]], where she lay in the French naval dock from August 23, 1863, to February 12, 1864. There, broken in health, Maffitt relinquished command to Commander [[Joseph Nicholson Barney]], whose ill health prompted an additional handover to Lieutenant [[Charles Manigault Morris]]. Departing for the [[West Indies]], ''Florida'' bunkered (reloaded her coal bunkers) at [[Barbados]], although the three months specified by British law had not elapsed since her last coaling at a [[British Empire]] port. She then skirted the U.S. coast, sailed east across the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to [[Tenerife]] in the [[Canary Islands]] and thence back southwest to [[Salvador, Brazil|Bahia]], [[Brazil]], arriving on October 4, 1864.

Anchored at Bahia on October 7, ''Florida'', while her captain was ashore with half his crew, was caught defenseless in an illegal night attack by [[Commander (United States)|Commander]] [[Napoleon Collins]], of the U.S. Navy steam sloop-of-war {{USS|Wachusett|1861|6}}. Towed to sea, she was sent to the United States as a prize, despite the [[Empire of Brazil]]'s protests at the violation of its sovereignty. Commander Collins was [[court-martial]]ed and was convicted of violating Brazilian territorial rights, but the verdict was set aside by [[United States Secretary of the Navy]] [[Gideon Welles]]. Collins won fame and eventual promotion for his daring capture of the raider.

At [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]], [[Virginia]], on November 28, 1864, ''Florida'' reached the end of her career when she sank under dubious circumstances after a collision with the [[United States Army Transport]] {{ship|USAT|Alliance}}, a troop ferry. ''Florida'' could therefore not be delivered to Brazil in satisfaction of the final court order, and could not rejoin the Confederate States Navy.

''Florida'' captured 37 prizes in her impressive career. Two of her prizes were absorbed into the Confederate States Navy as {{ship|CSS|Tacony}} and {{ship|CSS|Clarence}} and in turn took 23 more prizes.

Today, many of the artifacts from CSS ''Florida'' are at the [[Hampton Roads Naval Museum]].
[[File:The pirate Florida burning the barque Golconda, off Cape Henry, July 8 - FL 1864.jpg|thumb|The pirate ''Florida'' burning the barque ''Golconda'', off Cape Henry, July 8, 1864]]
[[File:The pirate Florida intercepting the U.S. Mail steamer Electric Spark, from New York to New Orleans, July 10 - FL 1864.jpg|thumb|The ''Florida'' intercepting the U.S. Mail steamer ''Electric Spark'', from New York to New Orleans, July 10, 1864]]