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CSS Shenandoah and the Last Shot of the Civil War
How the Rebels saved the whales
By Mike Markowitz - April 9, 2015
Colored lithograph of an artwork by B. Russell, depicting CSS Shenandoah's assault on the U.S. whaling ships in the Bering Sea area. Individual items shown are (from left to right): brig Susan Abigail (burning); ship Euphrates (burning – distant); CSS Shenandoah; ship Jerah Swift (burning – distant); ship William Thompson (burning – distant); ship Sophia Thornton (burning); whaleboat going to warn other whalers (very distant); ship Milo, which carried the destroyed vessels' crews to San Francisco; ice in the distance. U.S. Naval Historical Center Artwork
How the Rebels saved the whales
By Mike Markowitz - April 9, 2015
Colored lithograph of an artwork by B. Russell, depicting CSS Shenandoah's assault on the U.S. whaling ships in the Bering Sea area. Individual items shown are (from left to right): brig Susan Abigail (burning); ship Euphrates (burning – distant); CSS Shenandoah; ship Jerah Swift (burning – distant); ship William Thompson (burning – distant); ship Sophia Thornton (burning); whaleboat going to warn other whalers (very distant); ship Milo, which carried the destroyed vessels' crews to San Francisco; ice in the distance. U.S. Naval Historical Center Artwork
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- Sections: Military History
Topics: Naval Forces
Labels: Conflicts & Operations, Surface Ships
It is a matter of odd historical fact that the last shot of the American Civil War was a blank fired at a New Bedford whaling ship in the Bering Sea off Siberia on June 22, 1865, more than a month after the conflict had actually ended. To understand this bizarre event in this peculiar location, we need to briefly recount the voyage of the Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah, an extraordinary epic of seafaring long neglected as a minor footnote to maritime history.