CSS Shenandoah - Vessels Captured

Vessels Captured

Sea King departed from Liverpool on October 8, 1864, and on October 19, off the coast of France, was surreptitiously re-commissioned as the warship CSS Shenandoah. En route to Cape Horn, she captured and disposed of eight prizes in the Atlantic Ocean.

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 3-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.

On June 27, 1865, he learned, from a prize Susan & Abigail, of General Robert E. Lee's surrender when her captain produced a San Francisco newspaper reporting the flight from Richmond, Virginia, of the Confederate Government 10 weeks previously. The same paper contained Confederate President Jefferson Davis's proclamation, after Lee's surrender, that the "war would be carried on with re-newed vigor." He then proceeded to capture 10 more whalers in the space of 7 hours in the waters just below the Arctic Circle. It was not until August 2 that Shenandoah learned of the final Confederate collapse when she encountered the British barque Barracouta. Among the devastating news was surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston and his various armies (April 26), Kirby Smith's, (May 26) and Magruder's armies and, crucially, the capture of Mr. Davis and a part of his cabinet. Captain Waddell then disarmed the ship and proceeded back to surrender at Liverpool.

1. On October 30, 1864, the cargo bark Alina was scuttled south of the Azores, west of Dakar, near 16°47′N 26°43′W / 16.783°N 26.717°W / 16.783; -26.717.

2. On November 6, the cargo schooner Charter Oak of Boston, Massachusetts, was burned in the mid Atlantic at 7°35′N 27°46′W / 7.583°N 27.767°W / 7.583; -27.767.

3. On Nov. 8, the cargo bark D. Godfrey of Boston was sunk southwest of the Cape Verde Islands 6°28.5′N 28°24′W / 6.475°N 28.4°W / 6.475; -28.4.

4. On Nov. 10, the cargo hermaphrodite brig Susan of Boston was scuttled southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

5, 6. On Nov. 12, the neutral cargo ship Kate Prince of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was bonded for $40,000. at 1°45′N 29°22′W / 1.75°N 29.367°W / 1.75; -29.367. Prisoners were sent to Bahia, Brazil, and the bark Adelaide was ransomed for $24,000. and released.

7. On Nov.13, the cargo schooner Lizzie M. Stacey of Boston was scuttled and burned near the Equator.

8. On December 4, the whaling bark Edward was burned off Tristan de Cunha, near 37°47′S 12°30.5′W / 37.783°S 12.5083°W / -37.783; -12.5083.

9. On Dec. 29, the bark Delphine of Bangor, Maine, was burned at 12°13′S 68°33′E / 12.217°S 68.55°E / -12.217; 68.55 in the Indian Ocean, 1,550 kilometres (960 mi) south southwest of India.

During January 26 to February 17, 1865, repairs, crew recruiting and resupply was done at Hobson's Bay, Australia.

10. On April 3, the whaling bark Pearl of New London was burned at Lohd Pah Harbor 6°48′37″N 158°18′58″E / 6.81028°N 158.31611°E / 6.81028; 158.31611, Pohnpei Island in Micronesia.

11, 12. On April 4, the whaling ships Hector of New Bedford and Edward Carey, of San Francisco, were burned at Lohd Pah Harbor.

13. On April 10, the whaling bark Harvest nominally of Honolulu was also burned at Lohd Pah Harbor
On 4-13-1865, at 7:30 am, the Shenandoah departed Lohd Pah Harbor for the Bering Sea.

14. On May 28, the whaling bark Abigail of New Bedford was burned in the Sea of Okhotsk at57°7′N 153°1′E / 57.117°N 153.017°E / 57.117; 153.017 1,000 km (620 mi) north of the Kurile Islands.
The rich whaling grounds in the Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska were a safe haven for Yankee whalers during the American Civil War. This prosperous whaling ended in the spring and summer of 1865 when the Confederate raider Shenandoah arrived and captured twenty of the fifty eight Yankee whalers working here. These whalers were destroyed more than a month after Jefferson Davis was imprisoned on May 19, 1865.

15-20. On June 22, the whaling ship Euphrates, of New Bedford, was burned in the Bering Strait near 62°23′N 179°46′E / 62.383°N 179.767°E / 62.383; 179.767. The whaling bark Jirah Swift, of New Bedford, was burned in the Bering Sea. The whaling ship Milo was bonded for $46,000. The whaling ship William Thompson, of New Bedford, was burned northeast of Cape Narrows in the Bering Sea. The whaling bark Sophia Thornton of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea at 62°40′N 178°50′W / 62.667°N 178.833°W / 62.667; -178.833 and the Brigantine Susan & Abigail of San Francisco was burned in the Bering Sea at 62°48′N 179°4′W / 62.8°N 179.067°W / 62.8; -179.067.

21. On June 25, the ship General Williams of New London, Connecticut, was burned near St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait at 63°50′N 172°58′W / 63.833°N 172.967°W / 63.833; -172.967.

22-27. On June 26, the whaling barks Catherine and Isabella of New Bedford were burned in the Bering Sea at 64°21′N 172°20′W / 64.35°N 172.333°W / 64.35; -172.333. The whaling ship Gipsey was burned in the Bering Strait, the whaling ship William C. Nye of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea and the whaling ship Nimrod of New Bedford was burned near St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea and finally, the whaling bark General Pike of New Bedford, was bonded for $30,000. in the Bering Sea, loaded with 252 prisoners and sent off to San Francisco.

28-38. On June 28, the whaler Brunswick was burned near Bering Straits Narrows, the whaling bark Congress of New Bedford was burned near Bering Strait, the whaling bark Covington of Warren, Rhode Island, was burned in East Cape Bay near Bering Strait Narrows, the whaling ships Favorite of New Haven, Connecticut, Hillman, Isaac Howland, Martha and Nassau of New Bedford were burned in East Cape Bay in the Bering Sea. The whaling bark Waverly of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea, near the Diomede Islands. The whaling ship James Maury of New Bedford was bonded for $37,600. in East Cape Bay and retained for transporting prisoners to United States and finally, on this last and busiest day of captures, the whaling bark Nile of New Bedford was bonded for $41,000. in Bering Strait, loaded with 222 prisoners and sent off to San Francisco.

The Shenandoah had a plan to attack San Francisco, but on August 2, 1865, before they reached California, Shenandoah learned from the Barracouta that the Civil War had fully ended.

Barracouta had come from San Francisco; Waddell was heading to the city to attack it, believing it weakly defended. Immediately Shenandoah underwent physical alteration. She was dismantled as a man-of-war; her battery was dismounted and struck below, and her hull repainted to resemble an ordinary merchant vessel.