CSS Shenandoah Reports and Reminiscences

The Confederate cruiser Shenandoah sailed from October 1864 until November 1865 and was the only Confederate vessel to circumnavigate the world. Although there have been several books written recently on the Shenandoah, only one full account has been written on the visit of the ship to Melbourne in January and February 1865, “Rebel Down Under” by Cyril Pearl published in Melbourne in 1970. Angus Curry has recently published “Officers of the C.S.S. Shenandoah” by the University of Florida Press in 2006 but the Melbourne information is only contained in several chapters. The United States Consul to Melbourne, William Blanchard, at the time of the visit of the Shenandoah, had much to report to his superiors in Washington, D.C., he also supplied further information from affidavits to newspaper clippings when the Tribunal met in Geneva to discuss United States payments on Great Britain in the “Alabama Claims”.