Book Review:
Last Flag Down -- The Epic Journey Of The Last Confederate Warship, John Baldwin & Ron Powers, Crown Publishers, NY, 2007, 332pp.
This is the story of The CSS Shenandoah, the second most famous and successful Confederate Raider (the CSS Alabama being first) and the only Southern capital ship to sail completely around The World. She was purchased surreptitiously at a London dockyard and put to sea disguised as the coal freighter "Sea King" on October 7, 1864.
Sea King rendezvoused with a Southern supply ship at The Madeira Islands where cannons, powder, ammo, and a new crew were brought aboard. October 19th saw the commissioning of the new warship and the start of a mission that would take her around Africa, through The Indian Ocean to Melbourne, Australia where CSA sympathy was strong, and then up to the whaling grounds of The North Pacific to prey on Yankee vessels.
At the time, Shenandoah was likely the fastest ship on the planet because she was actually an early design upon which the famous clipper ships of the 1870s were based. She WAS a clipper ship except with both steam and sail. She even had a propeller screw that could be lifted out of the water for reduced drag. She was a clipper fitted for destruction. Her first owners had built her specifically to race the first tea from the latest Chinese harvests to the ravenous London markets. The first cargo to arrive each season was allowed to set the price and, in effect, corner the market. Barely 1 year old, she had set the London to Bombay and back speed record. She was 230 feet long, 32.5 feet wide, weighed 1,018 tons, and had a 250 hp steam engine. These early clippers were built to survive the worst storms and were able to ride WITH the storms (under full topsail) rather than INTO their winds (to ride them out without sail). These ships were known to cover 400 miles in a single day of "storm riding".
Unknown to Shenandoah's crew as they sped north past The Philippine Islands on April 9, 1865, General Lee was 10,000 miles away surrendering to General Grant at Appomatox Courthouse. But Shenandoah's intended mission had not yet begun. She wreaked havoc on whalers over the next four months with 38 total "prizes". She captured and sank 24 of them in one two week span. Finally, on August 2, 1865, the Raider's crew learned from a British vessel they met just west of Baja, California, that The War had been over. First Officer Conway Whittle, upon whose diary/log this book is based, wrote that it was "the darkest day of my life". Rather than surrender immediately and face possible trial and death as pirates, the men decided to return to England. They sailed around Cape Horn and arrived in Liverpool on November 6, 1865. The ship was sold to The Sultan Of Zanzibar who used her as his personal yacht. She broke up on a reef in The Indian Ocean during a storm in 1879.
There may be some sort of new mini-cult following for this ship and her story as I count at least 5 recent books about her. Here is a list of others :
The Last Shot -- The Incredible Story Of The CSS Shenandoah And The True Conclusion Of The American Civil War, Lynn Schooler, Harper Collins, 2005.
Confederate Raider In The North Pacific -- The Saga Of The CSS Shenandoah, Murray Morgan, Wash. State Univ. Press, 1995.
Sea Of Gray -- The Around-The-World Odyssey Of The Confederate Raider Shenandoah, Tom Chaffin, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006.
Gallant Rebel -- The Fabulous Cruise Of The CSS Shenandoah, Stanley F. Horne, Rutgers Univ. Press, 1947.
CSS Shenandoah -- The Memoirs of Lt. Commanding James I. Waddell, Annapolis Naval Institute Press, 1996.