Customer Reviews

A Ransomed Yankee: Epic Voyage of the Whalingship Milo

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This is a must read for Civil War, Navy or students of history. The writing is concise, cogent and well documented. Highly recommended.

The Civil War was over, yet the Rebels didn't know it. They still burned the Yankee whaling ships in the Bering Sea. But, the Rebel commander had a great deal of honor. He always saved the lives of the crews of those burned ships. There is an odd twist as how Frank Sissons' great-grandfather's ship was spared. Read it. You will enjoy it.

A most enjoyable read -- this is a fine job of research, using several original sources and is extremely well written.

The book has two stories:
- The voyage of the whaleship Milofrom New Bedford in 1863-65
- The voyage of the Confederate Raider CSS Shenandoah in 1864-65.

These two stories merged when Shenandoah captured Milo in the Bering Sea and then released her on ransom to take the prisoners from earlier captures to safety in San Francisco.

Although the author was an Air Force Officer and spent most of his career around airplanes, his New England ancestry and his early years in New Bedford gave him an appreciation for life at sea. You can almost smell the salt water spray in some of his descriptions!