CSS Shenandoah

CSS *Shenandoah*
	On a slip at Williamstown, Colony of Victoria (now a suburb of Melbourne, Australia) in 1865
History
Confederate States
Name	Sea King, Shenandoah, El Majidi
Port of registry	Liverpool
Builder	Alexander Stephen & Sons, River Clyde, Scotland
Yard number	42
Launched	August 17, 1863
Acquired	1863
Recommissioned	October 19, 1864
Decommissioned	November 6, 1865
Maiden voyage	Transport troops to New Zealand and return, 10 months
Renamed	CSS Shenandoah
Fate	As El Majidi foundered in November 1879
General characteristics
Type	Extreme clipper hull
Tonnage	1018 grt, 790 nrt
Length	230 ft (70 m)
Beam	32.5 ft (9.9 m)
Draft	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Decks	poop, main, berth
Deck clearance	7.5 ft (2.3 m)
Installed power	200 HP A. & J. Inglis steam engine
Propulsion	14 ft-diameter (4.3 m) bronze propeller
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	8 knots (15 km/h) under steam; 16 knots (30 km/h) under sail;
Complement	109 officers and men
Armament	4 × 8 in (203 mm) smoothbore cannons,; 2 × 12 pounder (5 kg) rifled Whitworth cannons,; 2 × 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons;

CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King and later El Majidi, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged sailing ship with auxiliary steam power chiefly known for her actions under Lieutenant Commander James Waddell as part of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.^[2]

Shenandoah was originally a British merchant ship launched as Sea King on August 17, 1863, but was later repurposed as one of the most feared commerce raiders in the Confederate Navy. For twelve-and-a-half months from 1864 to 1865, the ship undertook commerce raiding around the world in an effort to disrupt the Union's economy, capturing and sinking or bonding 38 merchant vessels, mostly whaling ships from New Bedford, Massachusetts. She finally surrendered on the River Mersey, Liverpool, United Kingdom, on November 6, 1865, six months after the war had ended. Her flag was the last sovereign Confederate flag to be officially furled.

Shenandoah is also known for having fired the last shot of the Civil War, across the bow of a whaler in waters off the Aleutian Islands.^[3]

^ Cameron, Stuart. "SS Sea King". Clydebuilt Ships Database. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ Baldwin, pp. 6–11
^ Baldwin, p. 255

[1] Cameron, Stuart. "SS Sea King". Clydebuilt Ships Database. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

[balwin611-2] Baldwin, pp. 6–11

[3] Baldwin, p. 255

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