Thanks for posting this up, Andy! It's a good story, too.
They were supposed to be the C.S.S. Mississippi and the C.S.S. North Carolina, and they would have been a much needed acquisition for the Confederate navy. Thanks to his indefatigable intelligence work, Thomas Dudley was able to provide sufficient proof that the Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead aimed to deliver these ships to the South, and Ambassador Charles Adams did some remarkable diplomatic ballet to stop the delivery. It basically came down to 'of course you know this means war' and a tired response of 'Yes, I suppose it does'. No go. As mentioned in your article, they were renamed Scorpion and Wyvern, and these unexpected acquisitions turned out to be a good deal for the Brits. They didn't lose money on them! The Wyvern was finally scrapped in 1922.
James Bulloch, however, pounded his head on his desk. He and Mallory and all their people had schemed and finagled for years to get those rams.
The Laird Shipyard, by the way, produced the C.S.S. Alabama - probably the most legendary of all the Confederate privateers. It was a pretty cool action when Bulloch himself slid her out of port, with Dudley breathing right down his neck!