Alabama on the Mersey
David Waller on the 150th anniversary of a ship that symbolised Liverpool’s ties to the Confederate states during the American Civil War.
On the morning of Tuesday, July 29th, 1862 the ship soon to be known to the world as the CSS Alabama weighed anchor on the River Mersey and headed out for sea trials. The weather was fine, bunting flapped merrily from the masts and a party of well-dressed Liverpudlian dignitaries and their fashionable wives enjoyed lavish hospitality on deck.
The guests, as well as a naïve Liverpool customs officer, had been assured that the ship would be back at anchor that evening. But at least one observer was not fooled: Thomas Haines Dudley, the United States Consul in the port of Liverpool, had been watching the construction of the vessel in the Laird Brothers yard for months.
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