The article was published in Polish. Below is an English translation of its opening. Wersja polska
It was 3.30 in the morning of 7 October 1864 when the commander of the Confederate cruiser Florida, Lieutenant Charles Manigault Morris, was woken by the owner of a hotel in the Brazilian port of Bahia. He was told that shouts and shots could be heard from the direction of the anchorage where the raider lay, but that in the darkness it was impossible to tell what was happening. Morris hurried to his ship. He knew that the US Navy sloop Wachusett was in port and had reason to fear the worst.
When Florida put into Bahia in October 1864, she was the second most successful CS Navy cruiser after Alabama. Built by William C. Miller & Sons in Liverpool, the ship, with her distinctive slender two-funnelled silhouette, displaced about 700 tons and had two masts with a barque rig. Her armament consisted of eight muzzle-loading Blakely rifles, two 7-inch and six 6-inch. In service from 17 August 1862, after a daring dash into Mobile, Alabama, under the command of John Newland Maffitt, known as the “Prince of Privateers”, the raider set out to wreak havoc on the shipping lanes. She captured or destroyed 24 enemy vessels before the need for repairs forced a long stay at Brest.
