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. After coaling at Nassau, she spent six months off the coast 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, 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 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 Napoleon Collins, of the U.S. Navy steam sloop-of-war . 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-martialed 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, 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 , a troop ferry. Florida could therefore not be delivered to Brazil in satisfaction of the final court order, and could not rejoin the ranks of the Confederate States Navy. Florida captured 37 prizes in her impressive career. Two of her prizes were absorbed into the Confederate States Navy as and and in turn took 23 more prizes. Today, many of the artifacts from CSS Florida are at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. References External links Ships built on the River Mersey Cruisers of the