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CSS Alabama was a blockade runner constructed in Liverpool. On 29 July 1862 the ship went to sea supposedly for trials with various dignitaries on board. After putting them off by a tug she quietly sailed off for the Azores to take on armaments and ammunition and began life as the blockade-runner CSS Alabama. Until June 1864 she captured and burned 55 Union merchant ships worth over four and a half million dollars. She bonded ten others for a further half million dollars value. On 19 June 1864, the Alabama met the USS Kearsage off Cherbourg, France. After a spectacular battle watched by thousands on the French coast, the Alabama was sunk.
This caused real tensions between Britain and the United States Government. Interestingly, it was sent to international arbitration after the war and in 1873 Britain agreed to pay three million dollars in compensation for the damage caused by all Confederate ships built in Britain or when using British ports. |
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