CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy. She was built in Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England, by John Laird Sons and Company. Launched as Enrica, she was fitted out as a cruiser and commissioned as CSS Alabama on August 24, 1862. Under Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama served as a successful commerce raider, attacking, capturing, and burning Union merchant and naval ships in the North Atlantic, as well as intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. The Alabama continued through the West Indies and further into the East Indies, destroying over seven ships before returning to Europe. On June 11, 1864, the Alabama arrived at Cherbourg, France, where she was overhauled. Shortly after, a Union sloop-of-war, , arrived; and on June 19, the Battle of Cherbourg commenced outside the port of Cherbourg, France, whereby the Kearsarge sank the Alabama in approximately one hour after the Alabamas opening shot.
History Construction Alabama was built in secrecy in 1862 by British shipbuilders John Laird Sons and Company, in northwest England at their shipyards at Birkenhead, Wirral, opposite of the city of Liverpool. The construction was arranged by the Confederate agent Commander James Bulloch, who led the procurement of sorely needed ships for the fledgling Confederate States Navy. The contract was arranged through the Fraser Trenholm Company, a cotton broker in Liverpool with ties to the Confederacy. Under prevailing British neutrality law, it was possible to build a ship designed as an armed vessel, provided that it was not actually armed until after it was in international waters. In light of this loophole, Alabama was built with reinforced decks for cannon emplacements, ammunition magazines below water level, etc., but was not fitted with armaments or any "warlike equipment" originally.
Initially known only by her shipyard number "ship number 0290", she was launched as Enrica on 15 May 1862 and secretly slipped out of Birkenhead on 29 July 1862.Wilson, Walter E. and Gary L. McKay (2012). "James D. Bulloch; Secret Agent and Mastermind of the Confederate Navy". Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 76, 80 U.S. Navy Commander Tunis A. M. Craven, commander of , was in Southampton and was tasked with intercepting the new ship, but was unsuccessful. Agent Bulloch arranged for a civilian crew and captain to sail Enrica to Terceira Island in the Azores. With Bulloch accompanying him, the new ship's captain, Raphael Semmes, left Liverpool on 13 August 1862 aboard the steamer Bahama to take command of the new cruiser. Semmes arrived at Terceira Island on 20 August 1862 and began overseeing the refitting of the new vessel with various provisions, including armaments, and 350 tons of coal, brought there by Agrippina, his new ship's supply vessel. After three days of work by the three ships' crews, Enrica was equipped as a naval cruiser, designated a commerce raider, for the Confederate States of America. Following her commissioning as CSS Alabama, Bulloch then returned to Liverpool to continue his secret work for the Confederate Navy.Wilson, Walter E. and Gary L. McKay (2012). "James D. Bulloch; Secret Agent and Mastermind of the Confederate Navy". Jefferson, NC: McFarland. pp. 90-92
Alabamas British-made ordnance consisted of six muzzle-loading, broadside, 32-pounder naval smoothbores (three firing to port and three firing to starboard) and two larger and more powerful pivot cannons. The pivot cannons were placed fore and aft of the main mast and positioned roughly amidships along the deck's center line. From those positions, they could be rotated to fire across the port or starboard sides of the cruiser. The fore pivot cannon was a heavy, long-range 100-pounder, 7-inch-bore (178 mm) Blakely rifled muzzleloader; the aft pivot cannon a large, 8-inch (203 mm) smoothbore.
The new Confederate cruiser was powered by both sail and by a two-cylinder John Laird Sons and Company horizontal steam engine,"English Accounts", The New York Times, 1864-07-06.Bowcock, Andrew. CSS Alabama, Anatomy of a Confederate Raider, Chatham Publishing, London, 2002. ISBN 1-86176-189-9. p. 139. driving a single, Griffiths-type, twin-bladed brass screw.
The telescopic funnel could be raised or lowered by chains to disguise the fact that the vessel was a steamer.Bowcock, Andrew. CSS Alabama, Anatomy of a Confederate Raider Chatham Publishing, London, 2002. ISBN 1-86176-189-9. p. 179.
With the screw retracted using the stern's brass lifting gear mechanism, Alabama could make up to ten knots under sail alone and when her sail and steam power were used together.
Commissioning and voyage
The ship was purposely commissioned about a mile off Terceira Island in international waters on 24 August 1862. All the men from Agrippina and Bahama had been transferred to the quarterdeck of Enrica, where her 24 officers, some of them Southerners, stood in full dress uniform. Captain Raphael Semmes mounted a gun-carriage and read his commission from President Jefferson Davis, authorizing him to take command of the new cruiser. Upon completion of the reading, musicians assembled from among the three ships' crews began to play the tune "Dixie" as the quartermaster finished hauling down Enricas British colors. A signal cannon was fired and the ship's new battle ensign and commissioning pennant were broken out at the peaks of the mizzen gaff and mainmast. With that the cruiser became the Confederate States Steamer Alabama. The ship's motto: Aide-toi et Dieu t'aidera (French which approximately translates as "God helps those who help themselves") was engraved in the bronze of the great double ship's wheel.
Captain Semmes then made a speech about the Southern cause to the assembled seamen (few of whom were American), asking them to sign on for a voyage of unknown length and destiny. Semmes had only his 24 officers and no crew to man his new command. When this did not succeed, he offered signing money and double wages, paid in gold, and additional prize money to be paid by the Confederate congress for all destroyed Union ships. The men began to shout "Hear! Hear!" in response. 83 seamen, many of them British, signed on for service in the Confederate Navy. Bulloch and the remaining seamen then boarded their respective ships for the return to England. Semmes still needed another 20 or so men for a full complement, but there were enough to at least handle the new commerce raider. The rest would be recruited from the captured crews of raided ships or from friendly ports-of-call. Many of the 83 crewmen who signed on completed the full voyage.
Under Captain Semmes, Alabama spent her first two months in the Eastern Atlantic, ranging southwest of the Azores and then turned east, targeting northern merchant ships. After an Atlantic crossing, she continued her cruise in the greater New England region. She then sailed south, arriving in the West Indies, where she continued disrupting merchant vessels before finally cruising west into the Gulf of Mexico. There, in January 1863, Alabama had her first military engagement. She came upon and quickly sank the Union side-wheeler just off the Texas coast, near Galveston, capturing that warship's crew. She then continued further south, eventually crossing the Equator, where she attained most of the successes of her raiding career while cruising off the coast of Brazil.
After a second, easterly Atlantic crossing, Alabama sailed down the southwestern African coast where she continued the campaign against northern commerce. After stopping in Saldanha Bay on 29 July 1863 in order to verify that no enemy ships were in Table Bay, she made a refitting and reprovisioning visit to Cape Town, South Africa. Alabama is the subject of an Afrikaans folk song, "Daar kom die Alibama" . She then sailed for the East Indies where she spent six months, destroying seven more ships before finally returning via the Cape of Good Hope en route to France. Alabama was often hunted for by Union warships; however, she was able to successfully evade engagement.
All together, she burned 65 Union vessels of various types, most of them merchant ships.
Expeditionary raids
Alabama conducted a total of seven expeditionary raids, spanning the globe, before heading to France for refit and repairs:
CSS Alabamas Eastern Atlantic Expeditionary Raid (August–September 1862) commenced immediately after commissioning. She set sail for the shipping lanes southwest and then east of the Azores, where she captured and burned ten ships, mostly whalers. CSS Alabamas New England Expeditionary Raid (October–November 1862) began after Captain Semmes and his crew departed for the northeastern seaboard of North America, along Newfoundland and New England, where she ranged as far south as Bermuda and the coast of Virginia, burning ten vessels while capturing and releasing three others. CSS Alabamas Gulf of Mexico Expeditionary Raid (December 1862 – January 1863) began as Alabama effected a needed rendezvous with her supply vessel, CSS Agrippina. Afterward, she provided support to Confederate land forces during the Battle of Galveston in coastal Texas, by sinking the Union side-wheeler . CSS Alabamas South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid (February–July 1863) was her most successful raiding venture, taking 29 ships while raiding off the coast of Brazil. Here she recommissioned the bark Conrad as . CSS Alabamas South African Expeditionary Raid (August–September 1863) occurred primarily while ranging off the coast of South Africa, as she worked together with CSS Tuscaloosa. CSS Alabamas Indian Ocean Expeditionary Raid (September–November 1863) involved a journey of nearly 4,500 miles (7,250 km) across the Indian Ocean.Fox, p. 179 Successfully evading the Union gunboat Wyoming, she took three ships near the Sunda Strait and the Java Sea.Fox, pp. 180, 182, 183 CSS Alabamas South Pacific Expeditionary Raid (December 1863) was her final raiding venture. She took a few prizes in the Strait of Malacca before finally turning back toward France for refit and repair.
Upon the completion of her seven expeditionary raids, Alabama had been at sea for 534 days out of 657, never visiting a Confederate port. She boarded nearly 450 vessels, captured or burned 65 Union merchant ships, and took more than 2,000 prisoners without any loss of life among either prisoners or her own crew.
Final cruise
On 11 June 1864, Alabama arrived in port at Cherbourg, France. Captain Semmes soon requested permission to dry dock and overhaul his ship, necessary after naval action and so long at sea. Pursuing the raider, the American sloop-of-war, , under the command of Captain John Ancrum Winslow, arrived three days later and took up station just outside the harbor. While at his previous port-of-call, Winslow had telegraphed Gibraltar to send the old sloop-of-war with provisions and to provide blockading assistance. Kearsarge had now boxed in Alabama.
Up to this point, Semmes had faced another warship only once—the much less well armed blockade ship Hatteras. He believed that the Kearsarge was not superior to Alabama, and did not wish for his ship to be interned by the French. Therefore, after preparing his ship and drilling the crew for the coming battle during the next several days, Semmes issued, through diplomatic channels, a challenge to the Kearsarges commander, "my intention is to fight the Kearsarge as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements. I hope these will not detain me more than until to-morrow or the morrow morning at farthest. I beg she will not depart until I am ready to go out. I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, R. Semmes, Captain."