— dated 16 June 1862 — to proceed immediately to the Far East in search of "armed piratical cruisers fitted out by the rebels" and soon headed west, bound for the Orient. Word of the Union ship's subsequent appearance in Far Eastern waters spread fast and far. In the Sunda Strait, off Java, Captain Raphael Semmes, the commanding officer of Confederate cruiser Alabama, learned from an English brig of Wyoming's arrival in the East Indies; and a Dutch trader later confirmed this report. On 26 October, Semmes wrote confidently in his journal that "Wyoming is a good match for this ship," and "I have resolved to give her battle. She is reported to be cruising under sail — probably with banked fires — and anchors, no doubt, under Krakatoa every night, and I hope to surprise her, the moon being near its full." Although in their search for each other, Wyoming and Alabama unknowingly came close to each other, they never met; and it would be up to another Union warship, the sloop , to destroy the elusive Confederate raider. Yet, despite being unsuccessful in tracking down Confederate cruisers, Wyoming did render important service to uphold the honor of the American flag in the Far East the following year, 1863. Ordered to Philadelphia that spring — after what had been a largely fruitless cruise — Wyoming was in the midst of preparations to leave the East Indies when an event occurred that changed her plans. The Battle of the Straits of Shimonoseki, 1863 On 10 May 1863, Wyoming at Yokohama, Japan. Attempts by to refloat her were unsuccessful as the tide was falling. She was refloated the next day and taken in to Yokohama. Wyoming was stationed there as a show of force, standing by to protect American lives and property during an outbreak of anti-foreign agitation in Japan. Nevertheless, that agitation continued into the early summer months, as the sonnō jōi movement grew in strength with increasing resentment by the Japanese to the terms of the recent unequal treaties signed with the western powers. Emperor Kōmei issued a decree setting 25 June 1863 as the date for the expulsion of all aliens from Japan. Although the Tokugawa shogunate was largely powerless to force compliance with this directive, the powerful pro-sonnō jōi daimyō of Chōshū Domain, the Mōri Takachika took the decree literally and decided to attack foreign ships passing