Alabama’s motto: “Aide-toi et Dieu t’aidera” (God helps those who help themselves)
150 years ago this month the CSS Alabama, commissioned on August 24, 1862 as a commerce raider and commanded by Raphael Semmes, began its career by capturing Yankee whaling ships around the Azores. The captured ships were burned after securing the crews. The Alabama’s first success occurred on September 5th when it captured the Ocmulgee; 150 years ago today it captured the Altamaha. In Memoirs of service afloat during the war between the states Semmes writes about capturing the whaling ships in the Azores and says (p. 237), “Chasing a sail is very much like pursuing a coy maiden, the very coyness sharpening the pursuit.”
Here’s Semmes’ (p. 238) on 150 years ago today:
… the welcome cry of “sail ho ! ” again rang from the masthead, and making sail in the direction indicated by the look-out, we soon discovered that the chase was a whaler. Resorting to the usual ruse of the enemy’s flag, the stranger did not attempt to escape, and in an hour or two more, we were alongside of the American whaling brig Altamaha, from New Bedford, five months out. The Altamaha had had but little success, and was
comparatively empty. She did not make so beautiful a bonfire, therefore, as the other whalers had done.
Coy maiden belches smoke
1584 map of the Azores
