On 13 October, joined Adela in Tampa Bay. That screw gunboat's commanding officer, Lt. Comdr. Alexander A. Semmes, had instructions from the commandant of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey, to land an armed expedition—manned by detachments from Adela and his own ship—to destroy two blockade runners that were reportedly anchored in the Hillsborough River, loading cotton. On the morning of the 16th, the two Northern warships moved in closer to Tampa, Florida, and, when some 2,000 yards from Fort Brooke, began bombarding the batteries which protected the town. The shelling was primarily intended to divert the attention of Confederate forces from the real purpose of expedition—the blockade runners. To confirm the false impression that the Union forces intended to land northeast of the fort, Semmes had some stakes placed in that vicinity. The ruse seems to have succeeded for his report of the expedition stated that ". . . that night quite a force was sent there to oppose a landing."
