CSS Shenandoah Still Cruising-- Part 1: Good to Be Out in the Pacific Again

JULY 5TH, 1865:  The CSS Shenandoah, Lt. Waddell, steamed out of the hostile Bering Sea via the Amukta Passage in the Aleutian chain and set a southeasterly course across the commerce lanes of the Eastern Pacific.

A captain at sea day and night never rests from all the encompassing responsibilities for the safety of his ship and men.  Escaping from the clutches of the ice Waddell felt deep relief:  "Again in the North Pacific with fine weather and the Aleutian Islands astern, I looked back in thankfulness towards those seas in which we had seen hard and dangerous service, and I felt a sensation of freedom on the vast outstretched water before us, no longer dreading the cry from the masthead of 'ice ahead'.

"We had run from gloomy fogs into a bright, cheerful, sparkling ocean, and as soon as the hot sun thawed the frosty timbers and rigging of the ship and man, we should feel ourselves more than a match for anything we might meet under canvas."

--Old B-Runner

The Shenandoah Learns of the Fall of Richmond

JUNE 22ND, 1865:  The CSS Shenandoah, Lt. Waddell, captured the Susan Abigail, recently from San Francisco.  A newspaper was found on board dated April 17, 1865.  It told of the capture of Richmond but also contained President Davis' Danville Proclamation declaring that the war would be continued with renewed vigor.

Moreover, Waddell noted:  "Three of the Susan Abigail's crew joined the Shenandoah, which was good evidence at least that they did not believe the war had ended."

The master of the prize stated that in San Francisco,  "Opinion is divided as to the ultimate result of the war.  For the present the North has the advantage, but how it will all end no one can know, and as to the newspapers they are not reliable."

After burning the Susan Abigail, Waddell continued northward to the Bering Strait, the northern exit to the Arctic Sea.

Over or Not,  Waddell Wants to Know.  --Old B-Runner