The most successful and feared Confederate commerce raider of
the war, the CSS Alabama, sinks after a spectacular battle off
the coast of France with the USS Kearsarge. Built in an English
shipyard and sold to the Confederates in 1861, the Alabama was a
state-of-the-art ship—220 feet long, with a speed of up to 13
knots. The cruiser was equipped with a machine shop and could
carry enough coal to steam for 18 days, but its sails could
greatly extend that time. Under its captain, Raphael Semmes, the
Alabama prowled the world for three years, capturing U.S.
commercial ships. It sailed around the globe, usually working
out of the West Indies, but taking prizes and bungling Union
shipping in the Caribbean, off Newfoundland, and around the
coast of South America. In January 1863, Semmes sunk a Union
warship, the Hatteras, after luring it out of Galveston, Texas.
The Union navy spent an enormous amount of time and effort
trying to track down the Alabama. The ship sailed around South
America, across the Pacific, and