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CSS Alabama enters Table Bay at 10:00 AM August 5, 1863. She is increasing speed in order to capture the Sea Bride before she can escape to within one league of S.African territorial waters.

This painting commissioned by Ken Sheppard of South Africa.

Over a 22 month period, the Alabama cruised the whaling grounds around the Azores, the shipping lanes along the eastern seaboard of the U.S., the Carribean, the Brazilian coast, along South Africa, the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the Bay of Bengal, capturing 447 vessels, capturing 65 Union merchant vessels, and sinking the U.S.S. Hatteras. She was at sea for 534 of the 657 days of her life. During this time she took 2,000 prisoners with no loss of life. Until the engagement with the Kearsage she lost not one man to accident or disease aboard the ship.

Her captain was well qualified for the leadership, operational, logistic, and legal challenges of operating independently at sea with minimum external support. He had commanded three U.S. Navy ships, served as a Naval Staff Officer in the Mexican War, made a survey of Ship Island, served as Inspector of Provisions and Clothing at the Pensacola Navy Yard, and served on courts martial at Pensacola and Memphis. The ships commanded by Semmes included the USS Flirt and the USS Electra, both homeported at Pensacola. He had written two books on the Mexican War and served as Secretary of the Lighthouse Board in Washington, D.C.

"[Joshiah]Tatnall was a greater sailor than Nelson ...
Semmes was Tatnall's equal"
- Captain John McIntosh Kell

CSS ALABAMA Association
P.O. Box 2744
Mobile, Alabama 36652-2744
FAX (334) 433-1602

E-Mail: CSSALA1864@aol.com