150th Anniversary of the Voyage of The CSS Alabama

One of the rare pictures of the CSS Alabama. Her mast could be lowered below
decks in order the disguise her profile at sea,

     150 years ago this Sunday, an English-built Confederate raider took the first leg of a two year long journey that would write her name into ship, combat, and world history books.
     She was called the Enrica when she left Birkenhead, and sailed down the River Mersey for a trip to The Azores. One there, she was fitted out as a warship and christened The CSS Alabama.
     Captain Raphael Semmes took command, and within weeks of her setting sail (she was a combination sail and steam ship) on August 24th, 1862, she raided a dozen whalers and other ships, removing the crews and things of value, and then sinking them. 
     During her life as a raider in The American Civil War, she would sink sixty-five ships, and become a much-feared arm of the Confederate States of America.

A statue of Capt. Raphael Semmes in  downtown Mobile, Alabama,
where he lived before and after the Civil War. He is buried there.

     Despite her name, she never made port in a Confederate or American city... instead traveling the world's seas in search of American (i.e. Yankee) merchant ships to plunder. Only a few of her crew were Americans, North or South.

The Battle between the CSS Alabama and the USS Kearsarge.

     And she would end her journey in a fierce battle, not near Charleston or Mobile, but off the coast of France.
    Now and then during the next several years, we'll note significant events in the story of the CSS Alabama on www.TimLennox.com. 

Documentary co-producer Bob Corley with a model
of The CSS Alabama in a display case at The Museum
of Mobile in 2008. One of the cannons recovered from the wreckage
of the ship off the coast of France is also in that museum/

     My interest comes from the fact that I was involved in an aborted Alabama Public Television effort to launch a documentary about her in 2007. The notes here may serve to whet your appetite, to encourage you to read more about her in book or website form. (you'll find the website we created to accompany the documentary here. And here is the book that inspired us in the first place, with thanks to author Stephen Fox.)