James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[214] at Sheerness, refitting under the direction of persons connected with the Royal Dockyard. Suspicions were aroused as to her character, and inquiries were set on foot; and the vessel, to escape detention, hastily put to sea, with the workmen still in her, and with only a part of her crew, which had been enlisted by the Inspector of Machinery at the dockyard. She was put in commission in the channel, as a Confederate man-of-war, with the usual ceremonies. Proceeding to Calais, she claimed admission to the port as a ship-of-war in distress, and needing repairs. The impudence of this demand was too much for even the most sympathetic neutral; and after the Rappahannock had made some attempt to enlist more men, and to continue her preparations for sea, her operations were summarily ended by a French gunboat, which was stationed across her bow. Finding it impossible to fit her out, her commander finally concluded to abandon her.

The Georgia was somewhat more successful. She was a screw-steamer of about seven hundred tons, and was built for the Confederates on the Clyde. She was launched in January, 1863, and put to sea in April, under the name of the Japan. A Liverpool firm was employed as the intermediary to cover all the transactions connected with the vessel. One member of this firm was her ostensible owner, and she was registered in his name as a British vessel. Another member of the firm took charge of a small steamer, the Alar, which was freighted with guns, ammunition, and stores, and met the Japan, or Georgia, off Morlaix, where her preparations were completed. The crew had already been engaged, and advances had been made by the same firm before the Georgia left the Clyde. For these transactions, proceedings were afterward instituted against the guilty parties, under the Foreign Enlistment Act, and they were sentenced to pay