Her six 6.4-inch, 32-pounder smoothbores were dwarfed by her two main guns. Unlike a Napoleonic-era man-of-war, which mounted more than 50 guns per side, Alabama totaled just eight. On the other hand, when I desired to use her as a steamer, I had only to start the fires, lower the propeller, and if the wind was adverse, brace her yards to the wind, and the conversion was complete.” When this was done, and her sails spread, she was, to all intents and purposes, a sailing ship. “The Alabama was so constructed, that in fifteen minutes, her propeller could be detached from the shaft, and lifted in a well contrived for the purpose, sufficiently high out of the water, not to be an impediment to her speed. “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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