The arrest of sailors from the CSS Shenandoah, local men who had stowed away on the vessel to fight for the Confederate cause, caught trying to escape by the Williamstown water police, in Hobson's Bay, Melbourne harbour, Australia, 14-15 February 1865
Illustration from Cassell's Century Edition History of England, pub circa 1901. The CSS Shenandoah was docked at Hobson's Bay, Melbourne for repairs in 1865, when it became known that local men had stowed away on the vessel to fight for the Confederate cause. Despite the Captain's protest that his crew contained none but the crew that had arrived with him the authorities were on watch after his refusal to allow a search warrant to be executed. On the night of the 14/15 February the Williamstown water police noticed a boat at Shenandoah's gangway and arrested the men who wer later prosecuted for joining the Shenandoah. Among them was Charley the cook a young Scotsman known to the Melbourne police as James Davidson. Info from wiki: CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged sailing ship with auxiliary steam power chiefly known for her adventures under Lieutenant Commander James Waddell as part of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.[3] The Shenandoah was originally a British merchant vessel launched as Sea King on August 17, 1863, but was later re-purposed as one of the most feared commerce raiders in the Confederate Navy. During a period of 12 1⁄2 months from 1864 to 1865, the ship undertook commerce raiding around the world in an effort to disrupt the Union economy, resulting in the capture and sinking or bonding of thirty-eight merchant vessels, mostly New Bedford whaleships. She finally surrendered on the River Mersey, Liverpool, England, on November 6, 1865, six months after the war had ended. Her flag was the last sovereign Confederate flag to be officially furled. The 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.
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