Atlantic Warfare Yesterday : 385 



Before the South lost all her harbors she had initiated another kind 

 of warfare on the high seas. This was carried out by a group of ships 

 known as the commerce raiders. These ships were constructed in 

 England for the Confederacy on the order of Captain James D. Bul- 

 loch and included the Florida, Alabama and Shenandoah. Of these 

 Alabama had the most notable career. She was 220 feet in length, 32- 

 foot beam, 1,040 tons burden, was rigged as a barkentine but also car- 

 ried steam auxiliary power. She was commanded by Captain Ralph 

 Semmes and was commissioned in the Azores in August of 1862. 



She began by taking prizes from the New England whaling fleet 

 that was then present in the Azores. In October she took sixteen 

 prizes on the Grand Banks among the grain ships and other vessels 

 operating between New England and Europe. Then she turned her 

 attention to Southern waters and captured the steamer Ariel, making 

 a passage between Panama and New York. For this vessel she 

 claimed a ransom of $261,000. Next, in the Gulf of Mexico, she pro- 

 voked the gunboat Hatteras into chasing her. After Hatteras was thus 

 separated from the blockading fleet, she was attacked and sunk. 



On her way to the Brazilian coast Alabama took other prizes and 

 justified her trip to the Cape of Good Hope in capturing and sinking 

 some twenty-four vessels. Her trip to the China Sea was not equally 

 successful and she returned to Cherbourg, France, in June of 1864. 

 This was her first and last mistake. The American minister in Paris, 

 hearing of her arrival, immediately informed Captain John A. Wins- 

 low of the steam corvette Kearsarge which was then lying in the 

 Dutch port of Flushing. Winslow at once took his ship to Cher- 

 bourg, set up a watch outside the harbor and challenged Semmes to 

 come out and fight. 



The vessels were very similar in size and construction, the Kear- 

 sarge being perhaps a shade larger. Any real advantage she possessed 

 over the Southern vessel resided in a concealed protection of chain 

 armor and in a highly trained naval crew. On Sunday, June 19, these 

 two vessels fought a duel in the waters between Cherbourg and 

 Dover while the population of Dover thronged the cliffs and the 

 French lined the cliffs and breakwaters as though they had come to 

 watch a football game. Front row seats, however, were claimed by the 

 family and friends of the owner of the British yacht Greyhound who 

 took his ship into the Channel to get a better view. The view in- 

 cluded something like an hour of fighting during which Kearsarge 

 outmaneuvered and outshot the Alabama until Semmes was forced to 

 haul down his flag and surrender. 



