3-011-735 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The fight between the Alabama and the Kearsarge, 1864. American Civil War - sea battle off Cherbourg on 19th June, from a sketch by Robert Lancaster, the owner of the yacht Deerhound, '...which was present during the whole of the battle, and which was happily instrumental in saving the lives of Captain Semmes, thirteen officers, and twenty-six men of the Alabama [a confederate ship originally called No. 290,]...when they had leaped into the water as their ship went down. [Captain Winslow of the Kearsarge wrote:]..."The Kearsarge...steered immediately for the Alabama for close action. The Alabama fired...two broadsides and part of another...The action lasted one hour and two minutes from the first to the last shot. The Kearsarge received twenty-eight shots above and below, thirteen about her hull...Such stuff as the Alabama firing when she was going down, and all such talk, is twaddle...The [rescued] officers of the Alabama on board the Kearsarge say that she was a complete slaughter-house, and was completely torn to pieces".' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.