The Most Perfect Cruiser

Download or read book The Most Perfect Cruiser written by Stephen Chapin Kinnaman and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Most Perfect Cruiser is the story of how the Confederacy got to sea the most deadly of its raiders, the C.S.S. Alabama. It is both a complex and a human tale, one that occurred entirely outside of North America. We encounter the ambitions of the brilliant James Dunwoody Bulloch, the Confederate secret naval agent who brought Alabama into being thinking he would command her; and her resourceful captain, Raphael Semmes, whose previous success had already alarmed the North. As for the Alabama, she began her maiden voyage in the teeth of a rising gale, barely escaping the clutches of a Union warship and the belated efforts of British authorities to seize her. All of these threads culminated in a three-way rendezvous in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where through a remarkable combination of luck, skill, and hard work, the South commissioned the most successful commerce raider the world has ever known. STEPHEN CHAPIN KINNAMAN is an offshore and marine technology professional with over thirty years of experience. He was born in 1950 and grew up in upstate New York and New Jersey. He and his wife, Maureen, currently reside in Chappell Hill, Texas. In preparation for writing The Most Perfect Cruiser, Stephen Chapin Kinnaman visited all the principal locations touched by Bulloch, Semmes, and Alabama, gaining a first-hand feel for the terrain which shaped Alabama's birth. Mr. Kinnaman was a director of the Mobile, Alabamabased C.S.S. Alabama Association, and as such was involved with aspects of the ongoing wreck recovery efforts in France. He participated in the Association's first field trip to Cherbourg during the summer of 1999. His nautical background and love of the sea has allowed him to craft a spirited account of the operational side of Alabama's creation which is so central to this book. Background Lines Plan (Courtesy Per Nordberg) Center Samuel Walters Painting of Alabama (Courtesy Vallejo Maritime Gallery, Newport Beach, California) James Dunwoody Bulloch Picture (Author's Collection)