3-021-566 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Confederate cruiser Shenandoah in the Mersey, 1865. 'After taking on board her stores and guns...this famous vessel, formerly named the Sea King,...hoisted the Confederate flag...The Shenandoah...did vast damage to the commerce of the Northern States, as long as the [American Civil] war lasted...[She] sailed for the North Pacific, where, notwithstanding that the commander was repeatedly told by the masters of neutral vessels whom he met on the high seas that the war between the North and South had terminated, he refused to believe them...Captain Waddell sunk, burned, and otherwise destroyed whole fleets of whalers in the Ochotzk Sea and Behring's Strait...the Shenandoah...destroyed thirty-seven vessels, the majority of which were whalers, and these were destroyed after the cessation of hostilities. To show how the operations of the Shenandoah affected the sperm oil market, we may state that her depredations amongst the whaling fleets has caused sperm oil to run up from £70 to £120 per ton...Captain Waddell, who has written a letter to Lord Russell to explain his conduct, states that...[when] he learnt that the South was really and truly defeated...he at once stowed away his guns and ammunition in the hold, and steered for Liverpool'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.