![]() ![]() “She was a perfect steamer and a perfect sailing ship, at the same time,” marveled Semmes. With two 300-horsepower steam engines driving a single two-bladed screw, she could make 13 knots. Any of you that thinks he cannot stand to his gun, I do not want.” “The Alabama Will be a Fine Ship”Ĭovertly financed through the sale of Southern cotton and built at the famous Laird Shipyard on the Mersey River near Liverpool, Alabama was a wood-hulled, bark-rigged (foremasts rigged square, mizzenmast fore and aft), 220-foot sloop of 1,050 tons. Your prize money will be divided proportionately. We are going to burn, sink and destroy the commerce of the United States. There is a chance that seldom offers itself to a British seaman, that is, to make a little money. “She is as fine a vessel as ever floated. “Now, my lads, there is the ship,” said the captain. A band played “Dixie” as Semmes read aloud his commission from President Jefferson Davis and the Stars and Bars were run up the mainmast. ![]() On August 24, 1862, newly promoted Captain Raphael Semmes of the Confederate States Navy called his largely English crew to the quarterdeck of his new command, the 220-foot battle cruiser Alabama, lying off the coast of Terceira in the Azores. ![]()
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