Steamer Alabama

“The Confederate privateer steamer Alabama (290). Captain Raphael Semmes. Our illustration of the Alabama was taken from a photograph while she was at Liverpool, where she was facetiously termed the Emperor of China’s yacht. The Alabama was built at Birkenhead; she was about 1,200 tons burden, with draught of about 14 feet; her engines built by Laird & Sons, of Birkenhead, 1862. She was a wooden vessel propelled by a screw, copper bottom, about 210 feet long, rather narrow, painted black outside and drab inside; had a round stern, billethead, very little sheer, flushed deck fore and aft; a bridge forward of the smokestack; carried two large black boats on cranes amidships forward of the main rigging; two black quarter boats between the main and mizzen masts, one small black boat over the stern on cranes; the square spars on a gallows between the bridge and foremast showed above the rail. She carried three long 32-pounders on a side, and was pierced for two more amidships; had a 100-pound rifled pivot gun forward of the bridge, and a 68-pound pivot on the main track; had tracks laid forward for a pivot bow gun, and tracks aft for a pivot stern chaser; her guns were of the Blakely pattern, and were manufactured by Wesley & Preston, Liverpool, 1862. She took her armament and crew and most of her officers on board near Terceira. Wester Islands, from an English vessel. Her commander was Raphael Semmes."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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