The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-05
BUILT FOR THE
 CONFEDERACY
lgIoRY OF WRECKED BRITISH
 MONITOR SCORPION.
Ex-C Confederate Naval Officers Think \ the Result of the War Might Have ' Been Different Had Not Eng land Seized the Scorpion
 and Her Sister Ship.

tWashington Letter in New York Sun.
 The laundering of the British monitor Scorpion off Georges Shoals last week, Awhile being lowed from Bermuda to St. FJohn, N. B., where she was to be broken lup as old metal. marks, perhaps. the tpassing of the last relic of the navy of the Confederate Government
 The Scorpion and her sister monitor.
 the Wivern, were constructed by Laird Bros, of Liverpool, under the supervision federate Navy, an uncle of President
 Roosevelt. Owing to the protest of Mir.
 Adams, then minister to England, acting under orders from Secretary Seward. the | British Government seized the two ves- kseis and refused to allow them to be kturned over to the Confederacy. It has telways been asserted by Southern naval lOfficers that the failure of the Confeder- Fate Government to secure these two mcn- ttors, which were then he most formid- Table war vessels atioat. went far to kchange the result of the war between the Estates.
 I There are today living in Washington 1.-Two or three ex-Confederate naval off, kcers who were among those sent to Eng Hand to bring the Scorpion and wivern Eto this country, and one of them fur finished the following account of the Scor- lpion:
 Soon after the battle between the Mon- k1tor and the Merrimac in Hampton Roads k1n 1862 the Confederate Government or- tdered from Laird Bros. two monitors and ksent Captain Bullock to England to su- Eperintend their construction The con etract price was 93,750 pounds, or about ket6s, ,75o apiece. One was to be completed kfn March, 1883, and the other in May of kfhe same year. They were known while bundergoing construction as Fl Tousson land El Mounassir.
 There was some delay in the work and Nr rrnf rrw.kfn 1FAN kConfederate officers whoSvere to man the knew boats ran the blockade at Charleston fS- C., and started for England. Those Een the party were Matthew F. Maury E9ohn R. Hamilton, Captain Littiepage EDan Trigg. H. H. Marmaduke and Capt Flames North. Captain Bullock was to kcommand one of the monitors and Capt. kQHorth the other.
 The party were beached at Eleuthera f&sland for two days. Then a wrecking kvessel came to their relief and lowed kfheir ship to Nassau. They arrived in
 The agents of the United States Gov kernment in England found out the inten- E&ions of the Confederates in regard to kEne Laird monitors and reported the mat Efer to Secretary Seward. The latter filed k3 protest through Minister Adams and kEngiand held up the two vessels.
 The Confederate officers then invoked 6s kFvho announced that they would purchase k4he monitors from Laird Bros. and that fHhey were the agents of the Khedive of kEgypt in the transaction. Their real bplan was to turn them over to the Con- ktederates. The British Government sent ln secret messenger to the Khedive. who Hdenied all knowledge of the matter Upon this Secretary Seward notified the British and the French governments that l4f the Lairds were allowed to deliver the l1wo boats to Bullock and North the Uni lEed States would consider it an act of twar on the part of Great Britain, and, if
 Bravvay Bros. bought them and deliv- tered them. an act of war on the part of
 France. In December, 1884, England con- lhscated the two boats and reimbursed
 their cost to the Confederate govern lment.
 ! The English papers said at the time that
 superiority of the Scorpion and the Wiv-
 ern to the other vessels of the British
 navy was disgrace to England The
 two monitors had the defective armor of
 the Monitor and the Merrimac and were
 nrted with revolving turrets If they
 could have been secured by the Confed-
 eraoy the blockades might have been
 raised and the effect upon the result of fahe war might have been very great.
 In view of the fact that the Scorpion
 had been used of late years as a target Tor British war vessels in the West In- Edies, an old Confederate sailor wrote to l,fhe Association of Confederate Veterans
 a few weeks ago. suggesting that she be koought by the Association and preserved hAs relic. His letter reached New Or kaeans In the last week of May, two days kafter the Convention had closed its an- knual session and too late, therefore, to kreceive attention. It was published in k4he New Orleans papers and a movement kHEas started to carry out the plan