![]() ![]() Its retractable propeller made for faster sailing without engine assistance, thus conserving coal, and a collapsible smokestack allowed the ship to assume the guise of a purely wind-driven vessel. ![]() The ship that would become the CSS Alabama, known only as “290” during construction, was 220 feet long and just under 32 feet wide and was equipped for both wind and steam power. In 1862, the Confederate government contracted with the Laird Brothers shipyard at Birkenhead in the United Kingdom, across the Mersey River from Liverpool, to build cruisers capable of running down merchant ships. The Alabama’s most important role in the conflict, however, was as a brief morale booster for the failing Confederate cause. ![]() Navy from the essential duty of blockading southern ports. The Alabama was a media sensation and spread panic throughout the pro-Union merchant fleet and distracted part of the U.S. Between the summer of 1862 and the spring of 1864, the Alabama captured 65 vessels flying the U.S. In Washington, President Barack Obama on Monday said Phillips' "safety has been our principal concern.Built in England and manned by an English crew with Confederate officers, the CSS Alabama was the most successful and notorious Confederate raiding vessel of the Civil War. She said she is proud of her husband and thanks everyone for giving her "the strength to be strong for Richard." She said the hardest part for her was not knowing what her husband was enduring. Richard Phillips' rescue caused his crew in Kenya to break into wild cheers and brought tears to the eyes of those in Phillips' hometown of Underhill, Vt., half a world away from the Indian Ocean drama.Ī statement from Phillips' wife Andrea was read at a news conference in Vermont on Monday. "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl. ![]() Those threats raised fears for the safety of some 230 foreign sailors still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off the coast of lawless Somalia. ![]()
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