To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth by Phil Keith

Author:Phil Keith
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Published: 2022-01-21T19:38:51+00:00

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What would have been the most notable display of Confederate Navy might was nearly put on display in the port of Bahia, Brazil, on the morning of May 13, 1863.

The Alabama crew thought they were anchored in Bahia alone, until the rising sun revealed another warship a half mile away. After some initial alarm on the Alabama, thinking a trap had been sprung, and a fight was in the offing, the mystery ship ran up the Confederate flag. Much to their relief, she turned out to be the CSS Georgia.

This raider was a recent addition to the South’s small oceangoing fleet, and the second Confederate ship named after the Peach State. The first CSS Georgia was an ironclad built in Savannah in 1862. The Ladies’ Gunboat Association had raised $115,000 for her construction. Commanded by First Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey,1 the new warship was anchored in the Savannah River and employed as a floating battery to defend the river channels below the city. Her cannons, if needed, were to check any Union advance from the sea as well as to guard Fort Jackson.

The second CSS Georgia had also been built in 1862 but started as the fast merchantman Japan. She was constructed with an iron hull, making her unsuited to Alabama-type extended cruises without dry-docking. Iron-hulled ships needed regular bottom maintenance in an era when antifouling under-body coatings were yet unknown. As eager as he was to expand the Confederate Navy, James Bulloch wanted nothing to do with iron-hulled ships, but Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury,2 one of Bulloch’s purchasing assistants, argued for the Japan. Vessels that could be purchased were few and far between and English shipbuilders were moving toward iron ships for greater hull integrity. Bulloch reluctantly went along and purchased her at Dumbarton, Scotland, in March 1863.

On April 1, the Japan departed Greenock, reputedly bound for the East Indies and carrying a crew of fifty who had shipped for a voyage to Singapore. She rendezvoused with the steamer Alar off Ushant, France, and took on guns, ordnance, and other stores. On April 9, the Confederate flag was hoisted and she was placed in commission as CSS Georgia with Commander William Lewis Maury3 in command. Maury’s orders read to prey on United States vessels wherever found. Though not quite as feared as the Alabama, the Georgia certainly made its mark on Union shipping.

The day after unexpectedly discovering each other, members of the crews of the Alabama and Georgia went on an excursion led by Semmes, who was senior captain over Maury. They boarded a train that took them up above the city of Bahia where they attended a reception hosted by the British superintendent of the local railroad. There, the two captains learned that the CSS Florida had been in the area two days earlier. Conceivably, if Captain Maffitt had known of the nearness of the other Confederate warships (with his brother aboard the Alabama as a midshipman), the sudden Southern squadron could have managed a reunion.

Given the growing military

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