CSS Alabama

A painting of CSS Alabama
History
Confederate States of America
Name:	Alabama
Builder:	John Laird Sons & Company
Laid down:	1862
Launched:	July 29, 1862
Commissioned:	August 24, 1862
Out of service:	June 19, 1864
Motto:	"Aide Toi, Et Dieu T'Aidera," (God helps those who help themselves)
Fate:	Sunk in battle with USS Kearsarge
General characteristics
Displacement:	1050 tons
Length:	220 ft (67 m)
Beam:	31 ft 8 in (9.65 m)
Draft:	17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)
Installed power:	2 × 300 HP horizontal steam engines, auxiliary sails
Propulsion:	Single screw propeller
Speed:	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement:	145 officers and men
Armament:	6 × 32 lb (15 kg) cannons, 1 × 110 lb (50 kg) cannon, 1 × 68 lb (31 kg) cannon

CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England by John Laird Sons and Company.Alabama served as a successful commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never docked at a Southern port. She was sunk in June 1864 by USS Kearsarge at the Battle of Cherbourg outside the port of Cherbourg, France.

Alabama was built in secrecy in 1862 by British shipbuilders John Laird Sons and Company, in north west England at their shipyards at Birkenhead, Wirral, opposite Liverpool. The construction was arranged by the Confederate agent Commander James Bulloch, who led the procurement of sorely needed ships for the fledgling Confederate States Navy. The contract was arranged through the Fraser Trenholm Company, a cotton broker in Liverpool with ties to the Confederacy. Under prevailing British neutrality law, it was possible to build a ship designed as an armed vessel, provided that it wasn't actually armed until after it sailed into international waters. In light of this loophole, Alabama was built with reinforced decks for cannon emplacements, ammunition magazines below water-level, etc., but the builder stopped short of fitting her out with armaments or any "warlike equipment".

Initially known as "hull number 290" to hide her identity, the ship was launched as Enrica on 15 May 1862 and secretly slipped out of Birkenhead on 29 July 1862. Union Captain Tunis A. M. Craven, commander of USS Tuscarora, was in Southampton and was tasked with intercepting the new ship, but was unsuccessful. Agent Bulloch arranged for a civilian crew and captain to sail Enrica to Terceira Island in the Azores. With Bulloch at his side, the new ship's captain, Raphael Semmes, left Liverpool on 13 August 1862 aboard the steamer Bahama to take command of the new cruiser. Semmes arrived at Terceira Island on 20 August 1862 and began overseeing the refitting of the new vessel with various provisions, including armaments, and 350 tons of coal, brought there by Agrippina, his new ship's supply vessel. After three days of back-breaking work by the three ship's crews, Enrica was equipped as a naval cruiser, designated a commerce raider, for the Confederate States of America. Following her commissioning as CSS Alabama, Bulloch then returned to Liverpool to continue his secret work for the Confederate Navy.