Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah [Hardcover]

Tom Chaffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2006

The 58,000-Mile, Around-the-World Cruise of the Confederacy's Last Ship Afloat

 

The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamer The Sea King left London on October, 8, 1864, ostensibly bound for Bombay. The subterfuge was ended off the shores of Madeira, as the ship was rechristened and outfitted for war. With new gun ports cut to accommodate additional cannon, the CSS Shenandoah commenced the last, most quixotic sea story of the Civil War, the 58,000-mile, around-the-world cruise of the Confederacy’s third most successful merchant raider. Before its voyage was over, thirty- two Union merchant and whaling ships and their cargoes would be sunk. But it was after ship and crew had rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, stopped long enough in Australia to cause a diplomatic crisis, and navigated the ice floes of Siberia’s Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean that their journey took its most fearful turn.

Four months after the Civil War was over, the Shenandoah’s Captain Waddell finally learned he was, and had been, fighting without cause or state. In the eyes of the Union, he had gone from being an enemy combatant to a pirate, a hangable offense. Hunted by Union and British men-of-war, his polyglot crew rife with hints of mutiny, and with dwindling supplies, Waddell elected to camouflage the ship, circumnavigate the globe, and attempt to surrender on English soil.

Assembled from hundreds of original documents, including intimate shipboard journals kept by Shenandoah officers, Sea of Gray is a masterful narrative of men at sea.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When the Union navy blockaded Southern ports during the Civil War, the Confederates dispatched commercial raiders to prey on private Union ships. One of these raiders was the C.S.S. Shenandoah, a British auxiliary steamer purchased by Confederate agents and refitted as a man-of-war. Chaffin (Pathfinder; Fatal Glory) recounts the Shenandoah's round-the-world journey in a compelling narrative based upon Civil War–era logbooks, journals, letters and memoirs. Commissioned to lay waste to New England's Pacific whaling fleet, the Shenandoah sailed from Liverpool in 1864. Thirteen months and 58,000 miles later, it sailed back. Along the way, the ship survived storms, ice jams and a near mutiny while capturing 40 Union vessels, taking 1,053 prisoners and destroying cargo valued in 1865 at $1.4 million. En route to the Bering Sea when the war ended in April 1865, the Shenandoah continued to fight until June for lack of " 'reliable evidence.' " Thereafter, it dodged capture as it raced for the safety of a British port. Sure to satisfy Civil War and nautical fans, Chaffin's history describes these adventures in gratifying detail. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Chaffin chronicles the remarkable story of the Shenandoah's 58,000-mile voyage around the world during the Civil War. Along the way, it sunk 32 Union merchant and whaling ships heavily laden with cargo, including brandy, rum, and whiskey. After the vessel rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope, it stopped in Australia and then navigated the ice floes of Siberia's Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean--much of it through gales, ice fields, subfreezing temperatures, fog, and rain. The ship's crew hoped to destroy the Yankees' western Arctic whaling fleet, but four months after the war ended, the Shenandoah's captain learned that he had been fighting a war "without cause or state." He had gone from being an enemy combatant to a pirate, an offense that could get him hanged. He camouflaged the vessel, circumnavigated the globe, and attempted to surrender in England. Chaffin drew on hundreds of original documents in researching this riveting narrative of one episode of the Civil War. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (January 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809095114
• ISBN-13: 978-0809095117
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,574,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ironic Victories in a Doomed Effort, March 20, 2006

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah (Hardcover)

"Just as war will have its heroes and its tragedies, so, inevitably, will it have its ironies," writes Tom Chaffin in _Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah_ (Hill and Wang). The story of the _Shenandoah_ is full of ironies. From October 1864 to November 1865, she had what could look like an extraordinary successful voyage. She was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe, logging 58,000 miles. She destroyed 32 vessels belonging to Yankees, ransomed six others, took over a thousand prisoners, and gained over a million dollars in prizes. She safely got back to port at the end of her conquests. Of course the cause for the Confederacy was doomed, but the _Shenandoah_'s story is especially ironic; her greatest conquests happened after Lee had surrendered to Grant, so that the cause dear to her sailors' hearts simply did not exist as they fought for it. It is a unique story and a sad one, and while the irony is thick, Chaffin has not forgotten to tell a rousing tale of the sea, full of battles, heroism, confusion, storms, and starvation.

The Confederacy's sea strategy was to destroy Union merchant ships by privateers, private vessels that would prey on the commercial fleet, cost the Union in ships and cargoes lost, and cause Union military ships to be drawn from other theaters of war to protect the endangered merchantmen. The _Shenandoah_ was converted from a collier to a gunship, secretly at sea. The captain, James Waddell, a graduate of the relatively new Naval Academy at Annapolis, was given the vaguest of orders. His men were to harass Union merchantmen, to take prisoners and prizes, and to sink or burn the evacuated vessels. Captives were left at the next port of call, and some were persuaded to join the _Shenandoah_'s crew. The persuasion might have been as mild as oratory from the captain, but it might be confinement in leg irons or worse. Waddell was not an exemplary leader, and morale was bad, but it got worse as the crew heard from its captives that the war was going badly for the Confederacy. There was no better way of communication than oral reports from captives, and perhaps newspapers that the captured ships carried. In the Bering Sea in June of 1865, they heard from a captive that the war was over (indeed it was, Lee having surrendered at Appomattox in April), but Waddell asked for documentary evidence and there was none. He may have deliberately been trying to deny that the war was lost.

Finally in August the _Shenandoah_ overtook the bark _Barracouta_, but the crew were disappointed to find her papers were in order and that she was a British vessel. They were further disappointed by newspapers she carried, giving documentary evidence that the Confederacy was no more. Waddell and his crew had finally to accept that their nation had been defeated, which was bad enough, but also that for the four months previous, their raids could be looked upon as nothing more than piracy. They stowed the cannon and filled in the gun ports, intending to make the ship look like the merchantman it had originally been. They should have raced to a safe port to surrender the ship, but the enigmatic Waddell, still keeping his officers guessing as to his real intent, set the _Shenandoah_ on a course that eventually, after deprivations of food and water, took it back to Liverpool. A pilot there guided the ship to dock and was asked by the first lieutenant, "What news from the war in America?" The dismal answer, which must have drummed a message of futility into all who heard, came back: "It has been over so long people have got through talking about it." The crew members scattered, and the officers, who had feared being hanged, were eventually pardoned. Their memoirs, as well as their on-board journals and contemporary newspaper accounts, have gone into Chaffin's fascinating story of a memorable, strange, and sad voyage.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical & a thriller - hard to put it down until the last page!, June 6, 2006

By 

Chandler Bridges "C Bridges" (Marietta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah (Hardcover)

This book will make a great movie; it has it all, real history made exciting, character studies, naval battles, survival, enchanted islands and alluring women, little known Civil War information, international intrigue, lessons in leadership, raging storms, nautical commerce,and all this is true stuff; it seems like pure fiction but all the sources and documentation are in the back. I look forward to seeing this on the silver screen and the sooner the better.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative, true tale of the sea, April 12, 2006

By 

Art Vandenberg "Art Vandenberg" (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah (Hardcover)

Tom Chaffin's "Sea of Gray" puts you right on deck, smelling the sea, hearing the wash of the bow wave, tasting the salt spray. Having grown up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, this book brought me a beautiful evocation and reminder of life on the water. Mr. Chaffin relates wonderful details of an incredible chapter of the American Civil War: intrigue around the world, hidden coves, tactics and strategy, treasure and bounty, gallantry toward the foe, even lost civilizations. It's a testament to real-life's ability to match any imagined fantasy. Tom Chaffin's command of language and the facts, details and nuances of historical events brings this real-life experience vividly to life.

A fine, quality volume with maps of the voyage, pictures and engravings make this a truly satisfying read and a complete experience. The end plates - schematics of the Shenadoah's hull and decks and its sail plan - are especially wonderful, satisfying extras. This is a great book about a true adventure, evocatively written, a finely told tale.