November 2, 1862: CSS Alabama Captures a Whaling Ship

NOVEMBER 2ND, 1862: The CSS Alabama, Captain Semmes, captured and burned the whaling ship Levi Starbuck, near Bermuda.

One of Many.  --Old B-Runner

The Final Confederate Surrender-- Part 2: A Ship Without a Country

The CSS Shenandoah was now a ship without a country.  It returned to Liverpool and surrendered, hauling down the Confederate flag for the last time on November 6, 1865.

The ship had been purchased for use as a Confederate raider in that city in October 1864.  It was originally named the Sea King and sailed the tea lanes to Bombay.  It was taken to madeira and converted to a commerce raider under the command of Lt. James Iredel Waddell.

The ship was forced to dock in Australia for repairs on a balky propeller for there weeks before embarking on a devastating attack on the North's whaling fleet in the Pacific and Arctic oceans.  On June 10, 1865, it captured 10 whalers.

Five days before that, it had captured the Susan Abigail and found newspapers aboard reporting the fall of Richmond and Lee's surrender.  Things looked bad for their country, but they also saw an article about President Davis imploring for Southerners to carry on with the fight.  So they did.

During their cruise, they captured or sank 38 vessels, captured more than 1,000 men and caused $1.6 million in damage.

Once they found the end of the Confederacy was confirmed, they began their 130-day journey back to Liverpool where they surrendered.

The ship was turned over to the United States by the British government and eventually sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renaned the El Majidi before it sank in the Indian Ocean in October 1872.

--Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago: The CSS Shenandoah Enters the Atlantic Ocean

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 1865:  The CSS Shenandoah, Lt. Waddell, rounded Cape Horn and entered theAtlantic Ocean enroute to Liverpool, England.  In the Pacific, the Shenandoah had struck the New England whaling industry a blow as that administered to the English whaling industry in 1813 by the USS Essex, commanded by Captain David Porter, the father of Civil War Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.

There was a lot of truth in the boast made by Waddell in later years when he said, "I made New England suffer."

--Old B-R'er

The CSS Shenandoah Departs Ascension Island

APRIL 14TH, 1865: Unaware of Lee's Surrender, the CSS Shenandoah departs from Ascension Island, Eastern Carolines and set a northerly course for the Kurile Islands.  The Shenandoah would inflict crippling damage to the American whaling fleet in the North Pacific.

The damage wrought on the Union commerce by Confederate raiders dealt the American whaling industry a blow from which it never recovered.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Shenandoah Gets Underway-- Part 2

FEBRUARY 18TH, 1865:  However, the Shenandoah paid a considerable price for its three week stay in Melbourne.

Waddell later wrote in his memoirs:  "The delay of the Shenandoah had operated against us in the South Pacific.  The whaling fleet of that ocean had received warning and had either suspended its fishing in that region or had taken shelter in the neighboring ports."  However, he noted,  "The presence of the Shenandoah in the South Pacific dispersed the whaling fleet of that sea, though no captures were made there."

--Old B-Runner

CSS Shenandoah Captures and Burns Whaling Ship

DECEMBER 4TH, 1864:  The CSS Shenandoah captured and burned whaling bark Edward off Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.  Lt. Waddell noted in his journal: "Her outfit was of excellent quality, and I lay by her two days supplying the steamer with deficiencies.... Two of her boats were new, and took the place of my old and worthless ones."

--Old B-Runner

Importance of Commerce Raiding for the Confederacy

AUGUST 10, 1864:  Secretary Mallory wrote Commander Bulloch in Liverpool of the continuing importance of commerce raiding to the Confederacy: "It seems certain that we could not obtain such ships as we specially want; but we must not therefore desist in our attempts and must do the best we can under the circumstances which surround us.

"The enemy's distant whaling grounds have not been visited by us,  His commerce constitutes one of his reliable sources of national wealth no less than one of his best schools for seamen, and we must strike it,  if possible."

The secretary's desires were to be carried out with even greater success than he had anticipated with the CSS Shenandoah.

--Old B-Runner