on the other hand, was in first rate condition and well in hand.  She speedily showed that she could overhaul the Alabama.  In fact, the Alabama entered the lists when she should have been lying in dock.  She fought with an exhausted frame.  She had the heroism to decide upon the conflict, without the strength to choose the form of it.  After some little manoeuvring this became painfully evident to Captain Semmes.  The Kearsarge selected her distance at a range of five hundred yards, and being well protected she deliberately took time and fired with sure effect.

Captain Semmes had great confidence in the power of his Blakeley rifled gun, and we believe it is a confidence not shaken by its failure to win the day for him.  He wished to get within easy range of his enemy, that he might try this weapon effectively; but any attempt on his part to come to closer quarters was construed by the Kearsarge as a design to bring the engagement between the ships to a hand-to-hand conflict between the men.  Having the speed, she chose her distance, and made all thought of boarding hopeless.

It was part of the plan of Captain Semmes to board, if possible, at some period of the day, supposing that he could not quickly decide the battle with artillery.  It was evidently Captain Winslow’s determination to avoid the old-fashioned form of a naval encounter, and to fight altogether in the new style; his superior steam power gave him the option.  When the Alabama took her death-wound she was helpless.  We must interpret the respectful distance maintained by the Kearsarge up to the very last, and the persistent plying of her guns while the side of the sinking ship was visible, as a settled resolution on Captain Winslow’s part to trust to guns alone, and throughout, so that a dangerous proximity might be shunned.  That much homage was paid by him to the hostile crew, and that his manoeuvre was creditably discreet, few will deny.

The crew of the Alabama, seamen and officers, were in high spirits throughout the engagement, though very early the slaughter set in and the decks were covered with blood.  Their fire was rapid and admirable.  It has been said in the House of Lords by no less a person than the Duke of Somerset, that her firing was positively bad; and that she hit the Kearsarge only three times during the action.  By Captain Winslow’s own admission the Kearsarge was hit twenty-eight times by shot and shell—­or once to every fifth discharge.  No seaman knowing anything of an actual engagement on the deep will object to the accuracy of such an aim.  Had the Kearsarge shown the same blank sides as the Alabama, another tale might have been told.  Captain Semmes, however, perceived that his shell rebounded after striking her, and exploded harmlessly.  This led him to rely upon solid shot.  The Alabama, not being thus or in any way shielded, was pierced with shell, and soon showed vast rents in her after-part.  Her pivot-gun was a distinct mark for the enemy, and