If you own any old books I suggest that you check the spine, that bit of cover around where the pages are bound and the cover is left free for movement. There is a space due to this method of construction that makes a convienient hiding place. Regards, Hank

Vol. VIII.-N0. 877

The Christian World

Friday, June 24, 1864

Topics of the Week
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Destruction of the Alabama

The notorious Confederate privateer, known in the course of its history by many names, the last being Alabama, has at last come to grief, and will commit no further depredations upon the commerce of the North American States. For some time past the Alabama has been closely watched by the Federal man-of-war Kearsage, and Captain Semmes therefore thought it desireable to retreat to the French harbour of Cherbourg for safety. It was useless, however, to keep there, and on Sunday morning the resolution to attack the Kearsage was carried into effect. The combat took place about nine miles from Cherbourg, and was watched on the one side by the crew of the French ship of war, Couronne, and on the other by the owner of an English yacht, Mr. Lancaster, with his wife, niece and family. The hostile ships having approached within a mile of each other opened fire, the Alabama beggining the wirk of destruction. Something over a hundred rounds of deadly shells were ejected from the guns-which never came nearer to one another than a quarter of a mile-when the Alabama was observed to be sinking, and endeavoring to escape to Cherbourg. When the stern of the ship was completely under water, Captain Semmes gave orders for the men to save themselves as best they could, and every one alive, not wounded, jumped into the sea and swam to the boats which had put off alike from the Couronne, the yacht Deerhound and the Kearsage ---several words here illegable due to a fold line---had been previously placed in the Alabama's boats, and they appear to have been mostly taken on board the Kearsage. There will probably be some question started upon the point how it was that the English yachtsman picked up Captain Semmes, and most, if not all the men would have been close prisoners and exposed to severe punishment had they been captured by the commander of the victorious ship. Mr. Lancaster is by one account reported to have said that Captain Winslow, of the Kearsage, requested him to interpose for the safety of the crew of the sinking vessel; but this may certainly be doubted, and the probabilities seem to be that the Deerhound went out from Southampton on the Sunday morning expressly to prevent the Confederate captain falling into the hands of his enemies. The crew of the Alabama comprised in all a hundred and fifty men when she left Cherbourg. Of these ten or twelve were killed during the action, and several were drowned. The difference between those and the number brought home by the Deerhound-thirteen officers and twenty-six men-being, it is hoped, saved by the boats of the Kearsage, or the French boats. The Surgeon of the Alabama was an Englishman, and, as nothing had been heard of him since he went below to dress the wounds of some of the sufferers , it is feared that he went down with the ship. Captain Semmes was wounded in his right hand. He appears to have apprehended the issue of the combat, for before entering upon it he sent on shore all the spoils taken from sixty American merchantmen, his money, and his bills of ransomed vessels. The ship's papers he managed somehow to convey to Mr. Lancaster on board the yacht. The scourge of the Federal navy sank in deep water, and not a relic of the ship is known to be in possession of her successful rival. When she was sinking Captain Semmes dropped his own sword into the sea to prevent the possibility of its getting into their hands, and the gunner made holes in one of the Alabama's boats and sank her for the same reason. Several of the French papers contain descriptions of the engagement. La France says that at eight o' clock in the morning of Sunday Captain Semmes assembled his crew and, in a fervid oration, announced that the time had arrived for them to conquer or die; his speech was received with gries a thousand times repeated, of "Hurrah for the South"; "cheers for Lee and for his Army"; "cheers for France, the only nation who geneously and impartially carries out her neutrality!" The whole population of Cherbourg was on the port, on the breakwater, on the heights- in fact on every point where a view of the battle could be obtained. The sympathy of the population was evidently with the South. The engagement and subsequent sinking of the Alabama and the saving of the Captain and crew is then described: "A short time afterwards the Kearsage came into port bringing her prisoners. She anchored close to the steamship Napoleon. She soon received many visitors. The Kearsage has suffered much; she has twelve shot in her hull. Her crew was superior to that of her adversary, who only mustered 134 men, but the crew of the Alabama, used to boarding, would have infallibly have captured the Kearsage if she could have been laid along side. Captain Semmes was adored by his crew, and by his staff. The animosity between the sailors of the South and North is such that yesterday they endeavored to fight with knives. The authorities found it necessary to put on foot all the naval gendarmerie, in order to prevent the spilling of blood."