There are not many people in Auckland who can say that they saw the Alabama, the Confederate cruiser that did such havoc among the shipping of the Northern States during the American Civil War. Mr. Robert Farrell, of Auckland, the well-known builder, well remembers meeting the famous raider. The British vessel concerned was the Queen of Beauty, a vessel of 1235 tons, which was built in North America, like so many of the fast vessels of the 'sixties, and was owned by the Merchant Trading Co., of Liverpool. On August 9, 1863, two years after she was launched, the ship arrived in Auckland from the Old Country after a run of 96 days, with 270 passengers on board. The first thing the passengers heard when they arrived was the news of the Maori war, and many of the young men joined either the volunteers or the militia. It was the fact that the Queen of Beauty was an American-built ship that led to the exciting encounter with the raider Alabama. the Queen of Beauty left Gravesend on May 5, and it was on June 16, when about 80 miles off the coast of Brazil, that she got three shots across her bows from the guns of the Alabama. Captain Chapman, of the Queen of Beauty, hove the ship to after the third shot, and a boat put off from the cruiser with an officer and several men.