HIS PART IN THE CIVIL WAR 173 



with workmen still on board and with only a few of her 

 intended crew. Her officers joined her in the Channel, 

 where she was commissioned the Rappahannock, Two 

 days later she entered the harbor of Calais under the 

 guise of a Confederate ship in distress. Here the 

 French threw such restrictions about her as to prevent 

 her from even making an attempt to leave port. Some 

 endeavors were made to sell the vessel, but the war came 

 to an end before this could be accomplished and the ship 

 was eventually turned over to the United States. Her 

 commanding officer had considered her a poor ship for 

 commerce destroying, because her machinery took up 

 too much space and her magazine was so large as to leave 

 but little room for crew and provisions. The ship was 

 often referred to as "The Confederate White Elephant", 

 but she did serve the very useful purpose of keeping 

 two United States war vessels constantly off Calais to 

 prevent her from going to sea. 



Maury and the other Confederate agents had great 

 obstacles to meet in securing ships, and probably did as 

 well as possible under the circumstances. Federal 

 agents were constantly on the watch to see that French 

 and British neutrality was strictly observed, and besides 

 Maury and his associates were greatly handicapped by 

 the lack of money for the purchase of vessels and the 

 insufficiency of both officers and their crews. "If I had 

 had money and officers", wrote ]\Iaury, *T could since I 

 have been here have fitted out half a dozen just as good 

 to prey upon the Yankee commerce as the Alabama''. 



Maury also had a hand in the attempt to have two 

 ironclad rams constructed in a French port for the Con- 

 federate government, one of which he hoped to have the 

 privilege of commanding. The specifications for such 



