Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory, telegraphing on September 19, warned Maffitt: "It is of the first importance that our steamers should not fall into the enemy's hands… these vessels, lightly armed, now constitute the fleetest and most efficient part of his blockading force off Wilmington."

Maffitt was to take no passengers, as a rule, and Assistant Paymaster Adam Tredwell, CSN, would deliver "5,000 pounds in sterling bills before sailing," Mallory concluded.

A letter to Mallory captured, along with Assistant Paymaster Talley, CSN, by USS Forest Rose on May 7, 1865 bears an endorsement by her commander, Lieutenant A. N. Gould, USN: "It shows that Maffitt has been landing on the Florida coast with the Owl."

U.S. Consul William Thomas Minor at Havana, Cuba reported on May 20 that Maffitt was to leave there in a day or two for Galveston, Texas.

Owl was delivered to Fraser, Trenholm & Co. in Liverpool after war's end, and Maffitt took the Board of Trade examinations to command British merchant ships to South America.