American Samurai Vol:8
Blood and Plunder
“This burning ship was a beautiful spectacle, the scene being wild and picturesque beyond description. The black clouds were mustering their forces in fearful array. Already the entire heavens had been overcast. The thunder began to roll, and crash, and the lightning to leap from cloud to cloud in a thousand eccentric lines. The sea was in a tumult of rage; the winds howled, and floods of rain descended. Amid this turmoil of the elements, the Dunbar, all in flames, and with disordered gear and unfurled canvas, lay rolling and tossing upon the sea. Now an ignited sail would fly away from a yard, and scud off before the gale ; and now the yard itself, released from the control of its braces, would swing about wildly, as in the madness of despair, and then drop into the sea. Finally the masts went by the board, and then the hull rocked to and fro for a while, until it was filled with water, and the fire nearly quenched, when it settled to the bottom of the great deep, a victim to the passions of man, and the fury of the elements.”
-Raphael Semmes
Raphael Semmes stands out as one of the greatest naval officers in American history. A professor of philosophy and English literature, he served as the inspiration for Captain Nemo in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Known by his sailors as “Old Bee’s Wax", and by his enemies as the "American Nelson," Semmes is most famous for his command of the CSS Alabama. Under his leadership from 1862 to 1864, the Alabama captured or sank more than 60 Union ships, making it one of the most successful commerce raiders in naval history.
Raphael Semmes was born in Charles County, Maryland, on September 27, 1809, the fourth child of Richard and Catherine Middleton Semmes. He was orphaned at an early age, and raised by an uncle with whom he shared the same name. Semmes secured an appointment as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1826. Over the next four years, Semmes served on the sloop of war Erie and the frigate Brandywine as they showed the flag in the Caribbean, along the coast of South America, and in the Mediterranean. During extensive periods of leave and in spare moments aboard ship, he studied law. In 1832, at 22, Semmes was commissioned a passed midshipman, but three years slipped by before he trod the deck of a ship as an officer. During those years, he opened a law practice and gained admission to the Maryland bar.
in 1835, Semmes served as acting master of the frigate Constellation, tasked to support the Army during the 1835–42 Second Seminole War. Semmes took command of the small steamer Lt. Izard in 1836, operating on the Withlacoochee River in what ultimately became the state of Florida. In 1837 he married Anne Elizabeth Spencer He relocated his family to Alabama, settling in Mobile. Though establishing a new life ashore, Semmes also served on or commanded several naval vessels engaged in hydrographic surveys, gaining knowledge that would one day enable him to truly prosper as a captain.
From 1846 to 1848, Semmes participated, afloat and ashore, in the Mexican-American War. In October 1846, he received command of the Somers. While serving on blockade duty near Verde Island, the vessel encountered a squall, capsized, and sank within 10 minutes with heavy loss of life. Exonerated by a court of inquiry, Semmes marched with the Army to Mexico City. His journals formed the basis for a popular 1851 memoir, Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War.
At the outbreak of the Civil War Semmes was offered command of the merchant steamer Habana by Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory. The Habana was built in 1859 and condemned by the naval service as unsuitable for use as a warship. Despite the subpar vessel, Semmes was eager and accepted, leaving immediately for New Orleans.
After two months the Habana was repurposed and commissioned the CSS Sumter. While the Habana was being transformed into the Sumter, the first Confederate privateers were put to sea as President Abraham Lincoln ordered a blockade of the Southern coast. The blockade proved incapable of stopping Semmes and on June 31st he outmaneuvered the sloop of war USS Brooklyn and broke into the open sea. Three days later, Semmes and crew claimed their first victim, Golden Rocket.
17 prizes followed (seven burned, 10 sent into friendly ports under bond) the Golden Rocket. Despite the success of the ship Semmes never loved his cruiser. At slightly over 470 tons, the 184-foot bark-rigged steamer was slow, under steam and sail. Its armament included just four 32-pounder smoothbores, an 8-inch shell gun, and, for a short while, a relatively ineffective howitzer on a land carriage, to put it plainly weapons that while acceptable for terrorizing merchants were far from suitable for engaging even the smallest of Union warships.
Nevertheless, Sumter’s six-month pillaging voyage through the Caribbean and across the Atlantic to Spain would not have been possible under anyone but Semmes. His remarkable knowledge of the ocean, coastlines, weather, and shipping lanes, along with exquisite navigational skills, allowed him to find his targets and survive the crucible of the sea and naval combat. During his time on the Sumter, Semmes’ belief in harsh discipline gained him a reputation as a dictator, but his leadership skills melded officers and seamen composed of disparate nationalities into an effective crew.
At the end of 1861, a sea-battered Sumter crossed the Atlantic to Cadiz, Spain. They proved a force of nature, having nearly closed Union merchant traffic in the Caribbean, propelling neutral shippers to withhold goods from Union ships, and diverting Union warships from the blockade and amphibious support to hunt them. More importantly, Semmes and the Sumter allowed the international community to reconsider neutrality (as a student and practitioner of maritime law, Semmes was careful to avoid trampling the neutrality of other nations). Though Spain evicted the Sumter, British Gibraltar welcomed her.
During their expedition, the Sumter had been badly damaged and without extensive repairs, she could neither sail nor evade waiting Union blockaders, so Semmes paid off his crew and laid up the vessel. Having not found a ship to replace her Semmes and his first officer, Lieutenant John McIntosh Kell, left Gibraltar expecting to return home, but fate would give them eternal fame, and for Semmes, fame home held the same name: Alabama.
John Laird Sons and Company launched Enrica—a screw sloop of war designed specifically for commerce raiding for the Confederate Navy—on July 29, 1862, at Birkenhead, England. Just before the Union had the chance to confiscate her hull Confederate agent James Dunwoody Bulloch gathered a mostly British civilian crew and sailed for Terceira Island in the neutral Azores, where Semmes joined Bulloch and was promoted to captain. While in the Azores the Enrica was reconditioned with material delivered by Agrippina.
Semmes, in constant fear of the arrival of a Union warship, forced his officers and men to complete the outfitting as fast as possible. Four days later, Semmes moved the ship into international waters and dropped anchor. The captain and his 23 officers stood on the deck proudly wearing their new Confederate grey and formally commissioned the Confederacy’s most powerful seagoing warship, the CSS Alabama. Only one condition remained: Semmes needed a crew, and that required persuading the British sailors aboard to join the Confederate States Navy. When a passionate speech about honor and duty failed, Semmes decided to appeal to the sailors in a language all their own. Semmes offered the crew signing bonuses, double wages, and prize money (to be paid in gold). Money talked and eighty-three men signed on and with a full crew, Semmes turned the Alabama westward to begin a voyage that would influence naval doctrine for the next five decades.
The Alabama exemplified the best in naval construction of commerce raiders for its time. Displacing 1,050 tons and 220 feet in length, the vessel had bark-rigged sails and a 300-horsepower steam engine (the propeller could be detached and lifted from the water to reduce drag when under sail). Capable of achieving 10 knots under steam or sails (13 knots when conditions allow the use of both). The Alabama could outrun any Union warships let alone the merchant ships it preyed upon. And if speed failed the Alabama could put up a fight, Semmes’ raider sported: six 32-pounder smoothbores (three per side), a long-range 100-pounder Blakely rifle on a forward pivot mount, and an 8-inch smoothbore shell gun on an aft pivot. A condenser provided fresh water, and hold space allowed for three months’ worth of provisions. With no homeport open to him, Semmes’ major concerns were coal (he could carry no more than 10 days’ worth), provisions, and fresh crew members. Like the pirates that came before him Semmes knew the answer to his circumstances was obvious: Let the enemy provide.
Semmes asked and he received, on Sept. 4, 1862, the Alamaba entered whaling grounds off the Azores, and the Alabama approached the Massachusetts whaler Ocmulgee under cover of a British flag (Semmes would use various neutral flags over the next two years). When the whaler responded by raising the Stars and Stripes, the colors of Dixie quickly replaced the false ensign, and a warning shot brought the enemy to a halt. A boarding party took control of the vessel and began stripping it of anything useful, while Semmes encouraged its crew to sign on with the Alabama.
For the next couple of months, Semmes and crew would utilize the same modus operandi to great success. Occasionally, prisoners crowded the deck of the Alabama until Semmes could land them in neutral territory or transfer them to a ship communed as a prisoner cartel (usually because it held large neutral cargoes, and Semmes knew the dangers of offending neutral powers). Occasionally, a prize crew sailed the captured ship to a neutral harbor, unloaded the prisoners, and returned to neutral waters to burn the vessel. Semmes never missed an opportunity to capitalize on his enemy’s mistakes, by using their vessels against them. On at least one occasion Semmes retained a ship as a temporary collier (cargo ships fitted to carry coal) when the Agrippina failed to make its rendezvous. Semmes even transformed one prize into a raider, CSS Tuscaloosa, which captured two prizes of its own before it was plundered by the British.
Burning ships and sunken hulls followed Semmes’ wake from the shores of Canada, through his former cruising grounds in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. It was in the Gulf where Semmes attempted to disrupt the Union invasion of Galveston, Texas. On Jan. 11, 1863 Semmes engaged and destroyed the converted passenger steamer USS Hatteras. Semmes rescued the surviving Yankees and fled to the Caribbean before turning south for Brazil in hopes of evading the Union.
Semmes continued to take prizes as he sailed from the coast of Brazil toward Cape Town, South Africa. Arriving in August 1863, the crew of Alabama enjoyed a brief reprieve from heavy weather and Union warships. It is while docked in South Africa that the Alabama inspired the song "Daar kom die Alibama" ("There comes the Alibama") a traditional Afrikaans and Cape jazz song.
With his crew rested and his ship repaired, Semmes crossed the Indian Ocean to the China Sea, raided in the Strait of Malacca, and returned to Cape Town via India and the east coast of Africa. Far from home in foreign waters, Semmes found the occasional prize and had to elude the pursuing USS Wyoming. In late March 1864, the Alabama returned to Cape Town, with an exhausted crew and weary captain.
Semmes had spent most of his time since 1861 at sea, and the constant stress of command had taken its toll. With the knowledge that his family had returned to the South, Semmes worried about how to get money to Elizabeth to support her and the children. By 1864 it was clear that without intervention by neutral France or Great Britain, The Confederacy would not survive. The Alabama was not doing much better— with coppering warped and dangling, she was slowed and her wooden bottom was open to the ravages of worms; her boilers were rusted and her old munitions were, damp, and rusted by the salty air. To make things worse, the Union press had labeled Semmes and his crew as pirates, a disgraceful charge he could not combat while at sea. There was nothing else Semmes could do, so he decided to make for a neutral European port, where he could weigh three options refurbish, lay up, or sell Alabama.
On June 11, 1864, a legendary voyage ended as the Alabama dropped anchor in the harbor of Cherbourg, France.
In 22 months the Alabama burned 54 Union merchant ships, bonded 10 others, and defeated a Union warship in open battle. He had driven the Union’s surviving merchant marines to the shelter of foreign flags as he redirected Union combatants from blockade duty. In so doing, Semmes had provided hope for the survival of the Confederacy.
The story of Semmes and Alabama could have ended there, but on June 14 the screw sloop of war USS Kearsarge, under Captain John Winslow, entered Cherbourg Harbor after hearing rumors of the raider’s presence and took up a blockading station three miles off the harbor. Semmes never one to back down saw a chance to secure a victory that might shift the European powers from neutrality. Semmes rallied his crew and set out on the Alabama to meet the enemy as French civilians gathered to watch.
Seven miles offshore, canons thundered as the warships pounded each other at 1,000 yards or less. Alabama’s gunners fired rapidly and wildly. The Kearsarge, partly protected by iron chains that hung amidship, fired more deliberately. Semmes proved more capable but the failure of many of the Alabam’s corroded shells to explode sealed her fate. An hour into the battle, the raider, its sides pierced and decks awash with blood, began to settle by the stern. With his steering damaged and boilers flooded, Semmes chose to save what remained of his crew and raised a white flag. Wounded in the arm, the Rebel captain tossed his sword into the sea and then leaped in after it and watched as the Alabama slipped beneath the waves, ending its short but courageous career as a commerce raider.
No one who is not a seaman can realize the blow which falls upon the heart of a commander, upon the sinking of his ship. It is not merely the loss of a battle — it is the overwhelming of his household, as it were, in a great catastrophe
- Raphael Semmes
Rescued by a British yacht, Semmes and 40-odd crewmen escaped the enemy. They returned by blockade-runner to the Confederacy where Semmes was promoted to admiral and given command of the James River Squadron, in support of the Army of Northern Virginia until the abandonment of Richmond forced their destruction in April 1865. Commissioned a brigadier general (the only officer to hold flag rank in both navy and army), Semmes led his sailors to join General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in central North Carolina. They arrived too late for battle, but in time to be paroled with the remainder of the army at Durham Station.
The war over he returned to his wife Elizabeth and their children, but could not escape Yankee animosity. He was arrested in December 1865 on a charge of treason and spent four months in prison before Congress found insufficient cause to hold him. After his release, Semmes taught Philosophy and English literature at Louisiana State Seminary, wrote his memoirs, and practiced law in Mobile. On August 30, 1877, Admiral Raphael H. Semmes, one of the best-known and most beloved Southern heroes, and greatest naval commanders of any age departed this world on his final voyage., but his memory and the memory of the Alabama lives on in the sounds of sailors as they sing Roll Alabama Roll…
When the Alabama’s keel was laid
Roll, Alabama, Roll
Twas laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
Twas laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
Roll, Alabama, Roll
Twas laid in the town of Birkenhead
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
Down the Mersey way she rolled then
Roll, Alabama, Roll
Liverpool fitted her with guns and men
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
From the Western Isle she sailed forth
Roll, Alabama, Roll
To destroy the commerce of the North
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
To Cherbourg port she sailed one day
Roll, Alabama, Roll
To take her count of prize money
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
Many a sailor lad he met his doom
Roll, Alabama, Roll
When the Kearsarge it hove in view
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
Til a ball from the forward pivot that day
Roll, Alabama, Roll
Shot the Alabama’s stern away
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
Off the three mile limit in sixty-five*
Roll, Alabama, Roll
The Alabama went to her grave
O Roll, Alabama, Roll
-TJS