ABOUT THE BOOK

The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamerSea King left London on October 8, 1864, ostensibly bound for Bombay. The subterfuge was ended off the shores of Madeira, where the ship was outfitted for war. The newly christened CSS Shenandoah then commenced the last, most quixotic sea story of the Civil War: the 58,000-mile, around-the-world cruise of the Confederacy’s second most successful commerce raider. Before its voyage was over, thirty-two Union merchant and whaling ships and their cargoes would be destroyed. But it was only after ship and crew embarked on the last leg of their journey that the excursion 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 world, he had gone from being an enemy combatant to being a pirate—a hangable offense. Now fearing capture and mutiny, with supplies quickly dwindling, Waddell elected to camouflage the ship, circumnavigate the globe, and attempt to surrender on English soil.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Chaffin, is a professor of history and the director/editor of the James K. Polk Correspondence Project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His books include The H.L. Hundley, The Sceret Hope of the Confederacy and Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire. His works have appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Time,and other publications. Presently a visiting scholar at Emory University, he lives in Atlanta.

REVIEWS

“An intriguing Civil War story and a bracing nautical yarn.” —Michael Kenney, The Boston Globe

“Chaffin delivers a crackerjack story. He writes with authority and a clear passion for the colorful, fated characters of this truelife bluewater saga.” —Philip Gerard, The News and Observer