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| WELCOME TO alabama PAGE OF PREMIUM WOODCRAFT |
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| css alabama model ship |
CLICK HERE TO: see more pictures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------- css alabama " long x " Wide x " High Requires over 350 hours to build from scratch (not from a model kit) by a master artisan Plank on bulkhead construction (a painstaking process where each individual plank is added to the hull one at a time). Built with rare, high quality woods such as light ebony, rosewood and blackwood. The model rests perfectly on a large, polished base betweenfour arched dolphins. Masterfully stitched canvas sails. No plastic parts (metal anchors and machine turned brass cannons. Significant detail. To build this ship, extensive research was done using various sources such as museums, drawings, copies of original plans HISTORY a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederacy in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company, Liverpool, England. Launched as Enrica, it was fitted out as a cruiser and commissioned 24 August 1862 as CSS Alabama. Under Captain Semmes, Alabama spent the next two months capturing and burning ships in the North Atlantic and intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. On 11 June 1864, Alabama arrived in Cherbourg, France and requested permission to dock and overhaul the ship. Pursuing the raider, the American sloop-of-war USS Kearsarge arrived three days later and took up a patrol just outside the harbor. On 19 June, Alabama sailed out to meet Kearsarge. As Kearsarge turned to meet its opponent, Alabama opened fire. Kearsarge waited patiently until the range had closed to less than 1,000 yards. According to survivors, the two ships steamed on opposite courses moving around in circles as each commander tried to cross the bow of his opponent to deliver a heavy raking fire. The battle quickly turned against Alabama because of the poor quality of its powder and shells, while Kearsarge benefitted from the additional protection of chain cables along its sides. A little more than an hour after the first shot was fired, Alabama was reduced to a sinking wreck, causing Semmes to strike his colors and send a boat to surrender. According to witnesses, Alabama fired 150 rounds at its adversary, while Kearsarge fired 100. When a shell fired by Kearsarge tore open a section at Alabama's waterline, the water quickly rushed through the cruiser, forcing it to the bottom. While Kearsarge rescued most of Alabama's survivors, Semmes and 41 others were picked up by the British yacht Deerhound and escaped to England. During its two-year career as a commerce raider, Alabama caused disorder and devastation across the globe for U S merchant shipping. The Confederate cruiser claimed more than 60 prizes valued at nearly $6,000,000. The Wreck One hundred and twenty years after its loss, the French Navy mine hunter Circe discovered a wreck under nearly 200 feet of water off Cherbourg, France, later confirmed as the wreck to be Alabama's remains. In 1988, a non-profit organization, the Association CSS Alabama, was founded to conduct scientific exploration of the shipwreck. Although the wreck resides within French territorial waters, the U.S. government, as the successor to the former Confederate States of America, is the owner. The Association CSS Alabama and the U.S. Navy/Naval Historical Center signed on 23 March 1995 an official agreement accrediting Association CSS Alabama as operator of the archaeological investigation of the remains of the ship. |
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