Talk:USS Swatara (1865)

Sent to rescue the Pope?
Some American Catholic accounts from the early-mid 20th century suggest that the Swatara was actually sent to the Papal States in 1866 to offer the Pope asylum in case Italian unification got out of hand. This seems unlikely in the extreme, and it's not reflected in Seward's actual correspondence with Rufus King, but I wonder where this idea came from, and if it has any historical basis at all worth mentioning?--Pharos (talk) 03:47, 19 February 2020 (UTC)