From the July 16th Canada.com. by T. W. Paterson.
It had been three months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah, under Captain James Waddell was still out on the high seas flying the Confederate flag. They had finally been convinced that the war was over and were no longer destroying Union shipping and had also given up on plans to attack San Francisco.
They also knew the Union navy was searching for them, but they did not know that the British Pacific Squadron was doing the same thing. They were to bring Waddell in or sink him if he resisted. Waddell had no intention of surrender and had decided to make the 17,000 mile run to the Shenandoah's home port of Liverpool.
However, his officers feared they'd be tried as pirates if captured so they wanted to go to Melbourne, Australia, or Cape Town, South Africa to turn the ship over to British authorities. Waddell would hear nothing of it so the officers put it to a vote among the crew. Two/thirds voted to return to Liverpool.
Did Waddell Make It? Next. --B-R'er
No comments:
Post a Comment