e in time one of
the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During
two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of
Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even
in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant
vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by
the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a
challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864,
after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the
English Channel.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]

The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed
at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and
cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the
China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the
downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]

%460. The Ironclads.%--To blockade the coast and cut off trade was
most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were
seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays
and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was
very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware
of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers
and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These
were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then
covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of
them was the _Merrimac_.

[Illustration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%]

[Illustration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%]

%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%--When Sumter was fired on and the
war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at
Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and
immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in
charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the
yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set
fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once
took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer
called the _