 While Fingal was <unk> her cargo , Bulloch went to Richmond to confer with Stephen Mallory , Secretary of the Navy . Mallory endorsed Bulloch 's plan to load Fingal with cotton to sell on the Navy Department 's account to be used to purchase more ships and equipment in Europe . He returned to Savannah on 23 November and it took him almost a month to purchase a cargo and acquire enough coal . He made one attempt to break through the blockade on 23 December , but it proved impossible to do as the Union controlled every channel from Savannah , aided by their occupation of <unk> Island at the mouth of the Savannah River . Bulloch reported to Mallory in late January 1862 that breaking out was <unk> so Mallory ordered him to turn the ship over to another officer and to return to Europe some other way . 
