Archive Results For: American Civil War
The First Blockade Runner and ‘Another Alabama’. Some Tees and Hartlepool Ships that Worried the Union
A great deal has been written about the British blockade runners during the American Civil War. Much of this has focussed on the contribution of Liverpool and the west coast. This article presents short histories of seventeen ships, built or owned by north-east coast merchants, which were involved, implicated in, or intended for, blockade running. […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Shipbuilding & Design
The Engagement between the C.S.S. Alabama and the U.S.S. Kearsarge 19 May 1864: the Archaeological Discovery 1984-88
An account of the discovery of the wreck of the C.S.S. Alabama off Cherbourg by a French Navy team using modern Circe class minehunters during the 1980s. Guerout, who participated in the search, deals with the challenges of locating the wreck, using Stenuit’s work based on the log of the Kearsarge as a starting point. […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Archaeology
Note: Legends about Wreckers
An account of the international spread of legends about the deliberate wrecking of ships. Read More
Filed under: American Civil War | Other (Eighteenth C) | Shipwrecks | Other (location)
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Yankee Ironclads at Birkenhead? A note on Gideon Welles, John Laird and Gustavus V. Fox
Diplomatic row about John Laird & Sons supplying powerful commerce raiders such as the C.S.S. Alabama to the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. At its centre was the thin interpretation of the 1819 Foreign Enlistment Act and British Neutrality in foreign wars. Because Lairds ships were fitted outside British territorial waters they claimed […] Read More
Filed under: American Civil War | Internal Waterways
Subjects include: Administration | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
The Confederate State Navy, 1861-1865: The Irish Contribution
The existence of the Confederate State Navy was nearly a miracle, because at the outbreak of the war against the Union, the South didn’t have any ship of war and the numbers of merchant vessels were very scarce. This defect was remedied by a lot of improvisation, so at the end of the conflict the […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War | Caribbean
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Navies
Construction and Purchase of Confederate Cruisers in Great Britain During the American Civil War
The Confederacy successfully built or purchased five commerce raiders in neutral Britain, despite Union opposition. In 1862, the barque Florida was built in Liverpool, armed in Nassau, and later captured thirty-four ships. The twin-engined barque, Alabama, was built in Birkenhead, armed in the Azores and sank seventy ships. The iron steamer Georgia was purchased in […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War
Subjects include: Navies | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers | Strategy & Diplomacy | Weapons
The Procurement of Confederate Blockade Runners and Other Vessels in Great Britain During the American Civil War
The Confederates entered the American Civil War blockaded by the North and numerically inferior to it in ships and shipyards. They sought to redress the deficiency by procuring from Britain, through building and purchase, warships and fast vessels equipped to run the blockade, in order to export cotton to England and return with urgently needed […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War | Caribbean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Logistics | Shipbuilding & Design | Strategy & Diplomacy
The Rise and Fall of the Monitor 1862-1973
The monitor displayed a process of evolution from Ericsson’s original concept through the big British monitors of the World Wars to the Zippos of Vietnam. Because it was capable of development, the monitor was important in the evolution of the battleship and other surface combat types. The monitor meantime, continues to have an independent existence […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1 | Baltic | English Channel | WW2 | North Sea | Crimean War | Post WW2 | American Civil War | Other (Twentieth C) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design | Weapons
Law and the Florida
The law of the seas deals, among other things, with the cases of seizing or sinking enemy ships in war. As it is sometimes difficult to decide on the spot whether a seizure or a sinking was within the limits of the law if it affected a neutral ship or neutral cargo, claims may be […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War
Subjects include: Administration | Merchant Marines | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
Mersey-Built Blockade-Runners of the American Civil War
British blockade-runners played an important role in the fortunes of the Southern States during the American Civil War and influenced the development of steamship design and speed. A large number of such vessels, mainly fast steel-hulled paddle steamers, were purpose-built in Mersey shipyards. They included the ‘Banshee’, the first steel vessel to make the Atlantic […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Civil War | Irish Sea
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Shipbuilding & Design