Skip to main content
Robert Clem

/ 2023

Sink the Alabama

The “Pirate” Raphael Semmes

The famous Civil War battle between the ironclad Monitor and Merrimac was an historic event, but a far more significant sea battle took place off the coast of France in 1864, between the CSS Alabama and USS Kearsarge. The Alabama, a steam and sail-powered commerce raider built secretly in Britain, became famous around the world. Its captain Raphael Semmes destroyed Union shipping on the high seas for 22 months while evading capture at every turn. His wife Ann Spencer Semmes, a committed abolitionist, left the South but was forced to return for her own safety after the “pirate” Raphael Semmes became a hated figure in the North. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was determined to sink the Alabama and sent dozens of ships to find it — to no avail. Traveling as far as Singapore, the Alabama was forced in the end to seek repairs in Europe where it was trapped in Cherbourg and finally met its end.

Music composed and performed by Donald Stark

Trailer

Image Gallery

Raphael Semmes with his peculiar mustache, National Portrait Gallery.
Raphael Semmes with his peculiar mustache, National Portrait Gallery.
Semmes in CSS Sumpter made a daring escape from New Orleans.
The Alabama was powered by both steam and sail.
Photo taken aboard the Alabama circa 1863.
Newspapers across the world followed the Alabama’s voyage.
Semmes tells a Union ship owner his vessel is to be burned.
The Alabama sinks the U.S.S. Hatteras off Galveston Texas.
Abolitionist U.S. Navy secretary Gideon Welles hates Raphael Semmes.
Edouard Manet’s painting of the Alabama’s sinking in 1864.