To avoid violating British neutrality, the Confederate Navy came up with a plan to send the completed but unarmed ship to the Azore Islands, midway between Europe and North America. Its retractable propeller made for faster sailing without engine assistance, thus conserving coal, and a collapsible smokestack allowed the ship to assume the guise of a purely wind-driven vessel. The ship that would become the CSS Alabama, known only as “290” during construction, was 220 feet long and just under 32 feet wide and was equipped for both wind and steam power. In 1862, the Confederate government contracted with the Laird Brothers shipyard at Birkenhead in the United Kingdom, across the Mersey River from Liverpool, to build cruisers capable of running down merchant ships. The Alabama’s most important role in the conflict, however, was as a brief morale booster for the failing Confederate cause. Navy from the essential duty of blockading southern ports.
The Alabama was a media sensation and spread panic throughout the pro-Union merchant fleet and distracted part of the U.S. Between the summer of 1862 and the spring of 1864, the Alabama captured 65 vessels flying the U.S. Built in England and manned by an English crew with Confederate officers, the CSS Alabama was the most successful and notorious Confederate raiding vessel of the Civil War.
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