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By tk Civil War P 83. Since the ship had left Melbourne on the 18th. of February, 29 vessels had been captured, another 3 bonded for $124,600, and the 4 at Ponape were valued at $117,759. The 21 of the total taken had a value of $843,028, a busy time for the Raider. But, unknown to Waddell, other than the 4 ships destroyed at Ponape, all other vessels had in fact been captured after the fall of the Southern States. When Milo reached the US on the 20th. of July the news of Shenandoah's rampage was reported to Secretary Welles by Captain David Mc Dougal, who commanded the Navy Yard at Mare Island on the west coast of the United States. For some unexplained reason, this message did not reach the Secretary's desk until the 18th. of August. McDougal followed up with a second letter to his Secretary of the Navy:
There was no response from Washington, now General Pike arrived with a further group of prisoners, the local paper Alta California headlined its attack on the government, claiming apathy, and called for private initiatives to fit out ships with an armament at least equal to the Raider: " To get out there, find her, and destroy this ship Shenandoah." Now on the 2nd. of August came the dreaded news, Irvine Bulloch had boarded the British bark, Barracouta, and returned, armed with a stack of recent newspapers, Lee and Johnson had surrendered, former Southern President, Jefferson Davis imprisoned, the armies defeated, and the world's navies out on the hunt for the rebel ship Shenandoah. At last: THE WAR WAS OVER. The ship's log now carried this entry:
Waddell now consulted his officers on their views on what to do with the ship? Here they were, stateless, deemed to have operated as a pirate, thousands of miles away from the US, a cruiser without a country, on the 3rd. of August the Captain decided that Sydney, Australia would be their destination, and he set a course accordingly. But by sunset, he had changed his mind, most of the crew had lived at Liverpool, Civil War P 84. and there seemed little point in making for Australia. Amid much discussion, CapeTown, New Zealand, any nearby British port were all canvassed, Waddell set off for Cape Horn, once into the Atlantic, the crew would anticipate Cape Town as the target, and he could head for Great Britain. But the crew were clamouring for their Captain to give them a firm commitment, he then addressed this problem, indicating that he would take the ship into the "Nearest British port." But after several weeks sailing, the crew were muttering amongst themselves, just what did the Captain mean by the " Nearest British port." Europe was a long 17,000 miles away, with many hurdles to jump before achieving that aim. Cape Horn was rounded, with the crew becoming more surly by the day, and by the 26th. of September it was evident that the next 24 hours would reveal Waddell's intentions, if the ship turned eastwards, it would be Cape Town, but if the course ordered was northwards, it must be Europe, and so it proved. The equator was crossed, and some two weeks later, on the 25th. of October, a steamer was reported, it had the cut of a man-of-war, after the sun had set, Waddell used his engines, by luck having a supply of smokeless Cardiff coal, it burned without leaving a trail of tell tale smoke, he steamed east for 15 miles before turning north again, the warship had been shaken off. Since leaving the Aleutians over the ensuing 122 days, over 23,000 miles had been covered. As a thick fog lifted on the 5th. of November, the bright green hills of Ireland were a wonderful sight to a tired and fretful crew, the Pilot Boat asked "Which Ship?" and Whittle responded with " The late Confederate steamer Shenandoah." The somewhat suprised Pilot returned with: The hell you say, I was reading but a few days ago of her being in the Arctic Ocean." On the 6th. of November 1865, the ship steamed up the Mersey River, flying the Confederate Flag, and anchored close by a British ship of the line, Donegal, commanded by Captain Paynter Royal Navy. Waddell now penned a quite lengthy letter to Lord Russell, surrendering his ship to the British Government, explaining it had taken a long time for him to discover the Civil War had ended, he requested that his ship be turned over to the United States. Since 1863, Britain had begun to reverse her policy of giving naval aid to the South, P85 finishes off Shenandoah, I still have to write about the few lesser Raiders, I have not done them in date order, so when I finishsh it all, I will suggest in which order each ship should appear. ie. I will give you a chronological order, and Shenandoah will be the last in the list of ships. I guess I need in due course, to list for each Raider the ships sunk, by name, tonnage and date of sinking. Do we need an alphabetical list made, that the search engine would respond to a specific entry in that list? Civil War P 85. she had achieved their objective of taking over maritime commerce supremacy from the United States, and now sought an International law that would prevent neutrals from building navies for any foreign nations at war. Having got what she wanted, Britain was prepared to turn all moralistic, and wanted to change the rules. But the US Minister was not going to forget the past, he wanted damages for all the damage done by Alabama, and the other main Southern raiders. Crown Law officers side stepped the damages claim, but issued orders that Shenandoah should be turned over to the US, and the crew released with the exception of any of those British subjects who had violated the Foreign Enlistment Act, when asked for a list of British subjects, Waddell indicated he had not paid much attention to nationalities on enlisting his crew, but he thought they were mainly American. No sailor admitted to British nationality, and Captain Paynter released the entire crew. To review Shenandoah's achievements, she sailed/steamed 58,000 miles over a short 13 months, and destroyed 32 ships, losing but 2 men to natural causes, the rather tentative Captain Waddell had, in fact, performed very well. He remained in England until 1890, returning to the States, he became a Captain in the British owned Pacific Mail Line, running between San Francisco, Australia and Japan, he unfortunately stranded a command on an uncharted rock off Mexico. When he died on the 15th. of March in 1886, the Maryland State Legislature adjourned in his honour. Shenandoah attempted to sail to the States on the 21st. of November, but fierce storms forced her to return to Liverpool on the 6th. of December. She languished for several months there, until the Sultan of Zanzibar bought her to act as his personal yacht, later she went back to the tea trade until in 1879, in the Indian Ocean a storm cast her upon a coral reef ripping open her hull, and the once proud Southern Raider was finished, a sad end to a distinguished career, albeit much of her success taken after the Civil War had officially ended. We have already noted that the final chapter to close the American Civil War, resulted in the Alabama Claims, on the 14th. of September 1872, the tribunal hearing the US claims against Britain voted 4 to 1 in favour of the United States, and awarded her $15,500,000. At long last, an incredible story covering 8 Confederate Armed Merchant Raiders is at an end, the back cover of this book may now be closed for the last time. Civil War P 86. CSS Nashville. This Confederate Raider was constructed in 1853, to be a coastal trader and carry passengers, she was a fast 1,200 ton side wheeler, but like most side wheelers did not shine as a sailing ship. Mallory had been given the task by President Davis of transporting two Confederate Commissioners, John Slidell to France, and James M. Mason to England, in a bid to get recognition of the Southern cause. He paid $100,000 for Nashville, and refitted her, lightening the ship, decreasing her draft, and moving to increase her speed to 16.5 knots, generally faster than any Union opponent. Lieutenant Robert B. pegram was given command, he obtained two English made 6 pounder guns from the Governor of South Carolina, and mounted them pivotally. By the time she was ready to make a dash for Europe with the diplomats, the Union side had placed four of their warships off Charleston Harbour to catch Nashville. With this avenue blocked, Slidell and Mason offered to charter the fast steamer Gordon for a $10,000 fee, this amount was too much to ignore, and the ship sneaked into Cardenas, Cuba on the 16th. of October 1861, now the two bound for Europe took a train to Havana, to take passage in the British Royal Mail steamer Trent. Nashville managed to slip out of Charleston on the 26th. of October, made it to Bermuda, coaled, and set out on the long trip to Liverpool. But on the other side of the island to Slidell and Mason, the Union ship,a 14 gun screw steamer San Jacinto commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes learned of their forthcoming passage in Trent, he decided to act. Without formal orders, Wilkes intercepted and boarded Trent in the Bahama Channel, and forced both Mason and Slidell back to San Jacinto, and scurried off to Boston with his two prisoners, arriving there on the 19th. of November. That same day, Nashville was off the west coasat of Ireland, and captured the 1,482 ton clipper Harvey Birch, prisoners, and navigational instruments were transferred, and the ship burned. Two days later Pegram anchored off Southampton, and released the 41 prisoners and passengers. News of the heavy handed approach by Wilkes arrived in England soon after, and did much to stir up British sympathy for the Confederate cause. The Trent Affair did a great deal for the South, even to emissaries from Britain, France, and Spain, meeting secretly to consider the recognition of the Confederate States. Pegram needed an overhaul for his ship, battered by Atlantic weather during her long voyage to Liverpool, his request was granted, and the ship docked.
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