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{{short description|Confederate Navy warship}}
{{About|the 19th-century ship CSS Shenandoah||Shenandoah (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin|infobox caption=CSS ''Shenandoah''}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image = CSSShenandoah.jpg
|Ship image size = 300px
|Ship caption = On a slip at [[Williamstown, Victoria|Williamstown]], Colony of Victoria (now a suburb of [[Melbourne, Australia]]) in 1865}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header =
|Ship country = Confederate States
|Ship flag = {{Shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}}
|Ship name = ''Sea King'', ''Shenandoah'', ''El Majidi''
|Ship namesake =
|Ship owner =
|Ship operator =
|Ship registry = [[Port of Liverpool|Liverpool]]
|Ship route =
|Ship ordered =
|Ship awarded =
|Ship builder =
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number = 42<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=3080 |title=
|Ship way number =
|Ship laid down =
|Ship launched = August 17, 1863
|Ship sponsor =
|Ship christened =
|Ship completed =
|Ship acquired = 1863
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship recommissioned=October 19, 1864
|Ship decommissioned=November 6, 1865
|Ship maiden voyage= Transport troops to New Zealand and return, 10 months
|Ship in service =
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed = CSS ''Shenandoah''
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit =
|Ship struck =
|Ship reinstated =
|Ship homeport =
|Ship motto =
|Ship fate = As ''El Majidi''
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
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|Ship class=
|Ship type= Extreme clipper hull
|Ship tonnage=1018 grt, 790 nrt
|Ship displacement=
|Ship tons burthen=
|Ship length={{convert|230|ft|m|abbr=on}}
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'''CSS ''Shenandoah''''', formerly '''''Sea King''''' and later '''''El Majidi''''', was an iron-framed, teak-planked, [[full-rigged ship|full-rigged sailing ship]] with auxiliary [[steam-powered ship|steam power]] chiefly known for her actions under Lieutenant Commander [[James Iredell Waddell|James Waddell]] as part of the [[Confederate States Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]].<ref name="balwin611">Baldwin, pp. 6–11</ref>
''Shenandoah'' was originally a British [[merchant ship]] launched as ''Sea King'' on August 17, 1863, but was later repurposed as one of the most feared [[commerce raiding|commerce raiders]] in the [[Confederate Navy]]. For twelve-and-a-half months from 1864 to 1865, the ship undertook commerce raiding around the world in an effort to disrupt the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union's]]
''Shenandoah'' is also known for having fired the last shot of the Civil War, across the bow of a [[whaler]] in waters off the [[Aleutian Islands]].<ref>Baldwin, p. 255</ref>▼
▲''Shenandoah'' is also known for having fired the last shot of the Civil War, across the bow of a
==History and mission==
[[File:CSSShenandoah-sketch.jpg|thumb|left|A pencil sketch of CSS ''Shenandoah'', from the inside cover of a notebook kept by her commanding officer]]
[[File:JamesIredellWaddellCSA.jpg|thumb|left|Commander [[James I. Waddell]]]]
The ship had three names and many owners in her lifetime of nine years. She was designed as an auxiliary composite passenger cargo ship of 1,018 [[Tonnage|tons]] and built in 1863 by Alexander Stephen & Sons, [[Glasgow]],
''Sea King''
The new Confederate cruiser was commissioned on 19 October 1864, lowering the [[Union Jack]] and raising the "[[Flags of the Confederate States of America#Second flag
As developed in the [[Confederate States Department of the Navy|Confederate Navy Department]] and by its agents in Europe, ''Shenandoah'' was tasked to strike at the Union's economy and "seek out and utterly destroy" commerce in areas yet undisturbed. Captain Waddell began seeking enemy merchant ships on the [[Indian Ocean]] route between the [[Cape of Good Hope]] and Australia, and in the Pacific whaling fleet.<ref name="balwin611"/> En route to the Cape, the Confederates captured six [[prize (law)|prizes]]. Five were burned or scuttled, after the crew and passengers had been removed. The sixth was bonded and used to transport the prisoners to [[Salvador, Brazil|Bahia, Brazil]], where they were released. On the 2 January 1865, the ''Shenandoah'' briefly stopped at [[Île Saint-Paul]], and some of the crew debarked to explore the island and gather food.
===Colony of Victoria stopover===
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''Shenandoah'' took only one prize in the Indian Ocean, but hunting became more profitable after refitting in Melbourne. En route to the [[North Pacific]] whaling grounds, on April 3–4, Waddell burned four whalers in the [[Caroline Islands]]. After a three-week cruise to the ice and fog of the [[Sea of Okhotsk]] yielded only a single prize, due to a warning which had preceded him, Waddell headed north past the [[Aleutian Islands]] into the [[Bering Sea]] and the [[Arctic Ocean]]. ''Shenandoah'' then proceeded to capture 11 more prizes.<ref name="baldwin247">Baldwin, pp. 238–254</ref>
The rich whaling grounds in the Bering Sea between [[Siberia]] and [[Alaska]] had been a safe haven for Yankee whalers for most of the American Civil War. This prosperous whaling ended in the spring and summer of 1865 when ''Shenandoah'' arrived and captured 20 of the 58 Yankee whalers working
On June 27, 1865, Waddell learned from a prize, ''Susan & Abigail'', that General [[Robert E. Lee]] had surrendered the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] almost three months earlier at [[Battle of Appomattox Court House|Appomattox Court House]]. ''Susan & Abigail'''s captain produced a San Francisco newspaper reporting the flight from [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] of the Confederate government 10 weeks previously. However, the newspaper also contained President Davis' proclamation that the "war would be carried on with
On August 3, 1865, Waddell learned of the war's definite end when ''Shenandoah'' encountered the Liverpool [[barque]] ''Barracouta'', which was bound for San Francisco. Waddell was heading to the city to attack it, believing it weakly defended.<ref name="whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk/surrender.htm|title=Surrender of the Shenandoah|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626171650/http://www.whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk/surrender.htm|archive-date=2015-06-26}}</ref> He learned of the surrender of [[Joseph E. Johnston|Johnston
Captain Waddell lowered the Confederate flag, and ''Shenandoah'' underwent physical alteration. Her guns were dismounted and stowed below deck, and her hull was painted to look like an ordinary merchant ship.<ref name="Gaines">{{cite book|last=Gaines|first=W. Craig|title=Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks |publisher=Louisiana State University Press|location=Baton Rouge|year=2008|pages=13–25|isbn=978-0-8071-3274-6 <!--0807132748-->|oclc= 255822065|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90d2LcmfpCcC&pg=PA20}}</ref><ref name="Thomsen">{{cite book|last=Thomsen|first=Brian M.|title=Blue & Gray at Sea: Naval Memoirs of the Civil War |publisher=Forge|location=New York |year=2004|series=Extracts from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion|pages=279–287|chapter=Abstract Log of C.S.S.Shenandoah, Lieutenant Commanding J.I. Waddell, C.S. Navy Commanding|isbn= 9780765308962|oclc=173166438|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rb202b80x6sC&pg=PA279}}</ref>
Names and dates of 38 vessels captured by CSS ''Shenandoah'', 1864–1865:
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[[File:River Mersey in 1962.jpg|thumb|The River Mersey with Liverpool on the right bank. CSS ''Shenandoah'' surrendered approximately where the ship is in mid-river. The open sea is to the top.]]
[[File:Liverpool Town Hall - geograph.org.uk - 374412.jpg|thumb|Liverpool Town Hall. The last act of the Civil War was Captain Waddell walking up the steps.]]
Regardless of Davis's proclamation and knowing the unreliability of newspapers at the time, Captain Waddell and his crew knew returning to a U.S. port would mean facing a court sympathetic to the Union. News of [[Lincoln's assassination]] also served to further diminish any expectation for leniency. The crew predicted that surrendering to federal authorities would run the risk of being tried in a U.S. court and hanged as pirates.{{discuss|Article assessment}} Commerce raiders were not included in the reconciliation and the amnesty that Confederate soldiers were given. Perhaps more importantly, Waddell would have been aware that the U.S. government no longer had to consider the threat of Confederate retaliation against Union prisoners while it determined his crew's fate. Likely not known to Waddell was that Captain Raphael Semmes of {{ship|CSS|Alabama}} had managed to escape charges of piracy by surrendering on May 1, 1865, as an army general under [[Joseph E. Johnston]]. Semmes's former sailors surrendered as artillerymen.<ref>"The Pursuit p 123"</ref>
Captain Waddell eventually decided to surrender his ship at the port of Liverpool, where Confederate Commander Bulloch was stationed.{{citation needed|date = November 2015}}
===Last lowering of Confederate flag===
CSS ''Shenandoah'' sailed from off the west coast of Mexico via [[Cape Horn]] to Liverpool, a voyage of three months and over {{convert|9000|nmi|mi km}} and was all the while pursued by Union vessels. She anchored at the Mersey Bar at the mouth of the estuary awaiting a pilot to board her to guide the ship up the river and into the enclosed docks.
The ''[[Liverpool Mercury]]'' reported the event on Tuesday, 7 November 1865:
{{
Considerable excitement was caused on 'Change yesterday morning by circulation of the report that the Confederate cruiser Shenandoah, of whose exploits amongst the American whalers in the North Pacific so much has been heard, was passed about 8 o'clock by the steamer Douglas at anchor at [[Liverpool Bar|the bar]], of Victoria Channel, apparently waiting for high water. By many the report was discredited, it being thought that those on board the Douglas were in error, and had mistaken some other craft for the celebrated ex-Confederate cruiser. At half past ten, however, all doubts on the point were set at rest, with the Shenandoah steaming up the Victoria Channel with the [[Palmetto flag]] flying from her masthead.<ref name="whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk"/>}}
{{HMS|Donegal|1858|6}} happened to be anchored in mid-river between Toxteth in Liverpool and Tranmere in Birkenhead. Captain Waddell maneuvered his ship near to the British man-of-war, dropping anchor.
CSS ''Shenandoah'' had struck her colors twice. This marked the last surrender of the American Civil War and the last official lowering of the Confederate flag. The very last act of the Civil War was Captain Waddell walking up the steps of [[Liverpool Town Hall]] with a letter to present to the mayor surrendering his ship to the UK government.<ref name="whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk"/>
The United States Naval War Records published in 1894:
{{
November 5 – Arrived in the Mersey, off Liverpool, and on Monday, the 6th, surrendered the Shenandoah to the British nation, by letter to [[Lord John Russell]], premier of Great Britain. (signed) JAMES I WADDELL.<ref>United States Government Printing Office, 1894</ref>}}
After the surrender,
===Fate of the crew===
After the surrender of ''Shenandoah'' to the British government, a decision had to be made of what to do with the Confederate crew, knowing the consequences of piracy charges. Clearly many of the crew originated from the United Kingdom and its colonies and were at risk of being considered pirates, and three had swum ashore in the cold November waters fearing the worst.<ref>"Last Flag Down"</ref>
After a full investigation by law officers of the Crown, it was decided that the officers and crew did not infringe the rules of war or the laws of nations to justify being held as prisoners, so they were unconditionally released.
{{
THE SHENANDOAH. PAROLE OF THE CREW.
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The government have at length taken a decided step in regard to the crew of this vessel. For the last two days the authorities in Liverpool have been in communication with the Secretary of State in reference to the detention of the ship and her crew. The Government seem to have been decided as to the necessity of retaining the vessel, pending an inquiry as to the action which her commander and crew have taken during the last few months, but there seems to have been some doubt as to the proper course to adopt with reference to the men on board. On inquiry at the Custom House yesterday morning, we were informed that the authorities had not received further instructions as to the vessel or her crew.
However, about 6 o'clock last night a telegram was received from Government by Captain Paynter, of her Majesty's ship Donegal, to whom the Shenandoah was surrendered, that the whole of the officers and crew, who were not British subjects were to be immediately paroled. Captain Paynter immediately proceeded to the [[Rock Ferry]] slip, and applied for a steamboat. The Rock Ferry steamer Bee was placed at his disposal by Mr. Thwaites, in which he immediately proceeded alongside the Shenandoah. Captain Paynter went on board and communicated to the officers the object of his visit. The crew were mustered on the quarterdeck by the officers of the ship, the roll book was brought out, and the names of the men called out as they occurred. As each man answered to his name he was asked what countryman he was. In not one instance did any of them acknowledge to be British citizens. Many nations were represented among them, but the majority claimed to be natives of the Southern States of America or "Southern citizens". Several of those however, who purported to be Americans, had an unmistakably Scotch accent, and seemed more likely to have hailed from the banks of the Clyde than the Mississippi. Captain Paynter informed the men that by order of the Government they were all paroled, and might proceed at once to shore. This intelligence was received by the men with every demonstration of joy, and they seemed to be delighted at the prospect of leaving the craft in which they had hoped to be able to assist the Southern Confederacy. They commenced to pack up their bedding and other articles as fast as possible, and conveyed on board the Bee, which was to take them to the landing stage. Before leaving the vessel, however, they gave three lusty cheers, for Captain Waddell, their late commander. Captain Waddell, in feeling terms, acknowledged the compliment, and said that he hoped the men would always behave themselves, as brave sailors ought to do. The men then went aboard the Bee, and were conveyed to the landing stage. This separated the Shenandoah and her crew, and the vessel now rides at anchor in the [[Sloyne]] in charge of some men from the Donegal, under the command of Lieutenant Cheek.<ref name="whenliverpoolwasdixie.org.uk"/>}}
[[Lieutenant commander (United States)|Lieutenant Commander]] [[James Iredell Waddell|James I. Waddell]] of North Carolina
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*[[Chief Engineer]] M. O'Brien of Louisiana
*[[First Assistant Engineer|Assistant Engineer]] Codd of Maryland
* Assistant Marine Engineer John Hutchison of Scotland
*[[Master's mate#US Navy|Master's mate]] John Minor of Virginia
*Master's Mate Lodge Colton of Maryland
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{{div col end}}
Sometime in December 1865, crew members S.S. Lee, Orris M. Brown, John T. Mason and W.C. Whittle sailed from Liverpool to [[Buenos Aires]], via Bahia, [[Rio de Janeiro]] and [[Montevideo]]. After prospecting for a while, they went to [[Rosario]], upon [[Paraná River]], and near there bought a small place and began farming.{{citation needed|date = November 2015}} As the animosity of the US government began to soften towards them, Brown and Mason returned home
On returning home, Mason took a law course at the [[University of Virginia]], graduated, and was successful at his profession. He settled in Baltimore, and married Miss Helen Jackson, of New York, daughter of the late Lieutenant Alonzo Jackson of the [[U.S. Navy]].<ref name="tribute">{{cite web|url=http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/whittle.htm|title=Tribute by Capt. W. C. Whittle CSN to John T. Mason and the Shenandoah|date=October 1904|work=The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah
Whittle returned home to Virginia from Buenos Aires in 1867. Born in [[Norfolk, Virginia]] in 1840, an 1858 graduate of the [[U.S. Naval Academy]] and an officer in the U.S. Navy before resigning his commission to accept a commission in the [[Confederate States Navy]], Whittle was appointed captain of one of the Bay line steamers running between Baltimore, Norfolk and Portsmouth in 1868 shortly after returning to Virginia and continued in this capacity until 1890. After, he was a Superintendent for the [[Norfolk and Western Railway]] Company. In 1902, he became an organizer of the Virginia Bank and Trust Company, [[Virginia Bank and Trust Building]], and served as its
Born in 1824, Captain Waddell was a former U.S. Navy officer with decades of sailing experience and a [[Mexican–American War]] naval combat veteran before resigning his commission to accept a commission in the Confederate States Navy. He returned from England to the United States in 1875 to captain ''San Francisco'' for the Pacific Mail Company. He later took command of a force that policed the oyster fleets in the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. In 1886, Waddell died of a brain disorder and was buried at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in [[Annapolis, Maryland]].<ref>''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography''. (1996). (William S. Powell, Ed.). Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, Vol. 6, p. 106 {{ISBN|0-8078-2225-6}}</ref>
Dr. Frederick J. McNulty, the ship's assistant surgeon, eventually became a resident of [[Boston, Massachusetts]], where he was first employed as Superintendent of the City Lunatic Asylum at Austin Farm and, later, opened there a private sanitarium called Pine Grove Retreat at [[Roslindale]] while continuing to reside at 706 Huntington Avenue, Boston. He became a primary historical source for chroniclers of the actions of ''Shenandoah''.
==Fate==
After her crew surrendered her to the British government at Liverpool on 6 November 1865,
In 1867 Wilson sold her to [[Majid bin Said of Zanzibar|Majid bin Said]], the first [[Sultan of Zanzibar]], who renamed her ''El Majidi'' after himself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/Navy_Ships/CSS_Shenandoah.html|title=CSS Shenandoah Confederate Navy Cruiser American Civil War}}</ref> On 15 April 1872 a hurricane hit [[Zanzibar]]. ''El Majidi'' was one of six ships owned by [[Seyed Burgash]] that were blown ashore and wrecked.<ref>"Great Britain & Zanzibar" British and Foreign State Papers Page 551</ref> Her crew were rescued.<ref name=LM220572>{{Cite news |title=The Hurricane at Zanzibar |newspaper=Leeds Mercury |location=Leeds |date=22 May 1872 |issue=10644 }}</ref> She was refloated on 7 July with assistance from {{HMS|Wolverine|1863|6}}.<ref name=Times091272>{{Cite newspaper The Times |
==Legacy==
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===Battle ensign===
[[File:Naval ensign of the Confederate States of America (1863-1865).svg|thumb|240px|The [[Flags of the Confederate States of America#Naval
The [[battle ensign]] of CSS ''Shenandoah'' is unique amongst the flags of the Confederate States of America as it was the only Confederate flag to circumnavigate the Earth during the Confederacy, and it was the last Confederate flag to be lowered by a combatant unit in the Civil War (in mid-river on the River Mersey at Liverpool, UK, on November 6, 1865).<ref>Baldwin, 319</ref>
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From the Southern Historical Society Papers:
{{
==See also==
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{{CSN Cruisers}}
{{1865 shipwrecks}}
{{1872 shipwrecks}} {{1879 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shenandoah, Css}}
[[Category:1863 ships]]▼
[[Category:1863 establishments in Scotland]]
[[Category:Commerce raiders]]
[[Category:Cruisers of the Confederate States Navy]]
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[[Category:Merchant ships of the United Kingdom]]
▲[[Category:Commerce raiders]]
▲[[Category:1863 ships]]
[[Category:Naval ships of Zanzibar]]
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