Crown Versus Cruiser: The Curious Case of the Alexandra

CROWN VERSUS CRUISER: THE CURIOUS CASE OP THE ALEXANDRA Frank Merit The Orra. War was fought on both sides of die Adantic—in Europe as well as in America. On die former continent it was a war of propaganda and diplomacy rather than blood and iron. EspeciaUy was this true in England, where the Queen's ministers often found themselves caught in the middle of the contending representatives of Union and Confederacy. One of die most important and decisive of diese instances revolved around die case of die ship Alexandra. Having approached the very brink of war with the United States over die Trent Affair in late 1861, Great Britain thereafter strove to maintain a strictly neutral policy. But a serious and intricate situation dien presented itseU. Scouring Europe in an attempt to purchase badly-needed warships, Confederate naval agents had contracted for vessels in English shipyards. From this source emerged the C.S.S. Florida in March, 1862, and the mighty Alabama die foUowing July. Widi more such vessels in prospect, Northern tempers flared at what was branded a definite Soudiern bias in "so-caUed" British neutraUty. Actually, Britain's failure to enforce a strict policy among her own citizens was largely die product of her antiquated and ambiguous neutraUty law—a "single phrase in a statute," as one commentator put it, "which has lain rusting so long tiiat the oldest Judge on die Bench confessed himself inexperienced and perplexed witii regard to it."1 This mandate, die Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819, was designed to prevent or punish unneutral activities. Among odier things, it forbade die fitting out, equipping, or arming of ships for combat in wars wherein Britain was neutral. To insure their profits from legal interference, British naval contractors simply disguised the real purchasers of ConFrank Merli, of Indiana University, will shortly embark on a Fulbright Fellowship for the University of London, where he will complete research on Great Britain and the Confederate navy. ? Illustrated London News, Nov. 28, 1863. 167 168FRANK MERLI federate warships, and did not attempt to arm them at the shipyard. Decisive proof that they were even warships thus proved very difficult to come by, however obvious the intent might be. Jefferson Davis's talented naval agent in Europe, James D. BuUoch, demonstrated with the Florida and the Alabama that the South could, to use an expression of the day, "sail a fleet of ships" tiirough England's antique neutrality statute. In the spring of the Confederacy's year of crisis, 1863, and with Anglo-American relations at a new low, Northern attention focused on another potential Confederate raider, the newly-built steamer Alexandra , then lying at a Liverpool shipyard. Thomas H. Dudley, American consul at Liverpool, had badgered British officialdom for some time with warnings of the ultimate destination of the finished vessel. To U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, however, he privately admitted in 1862 that there was little likelihood of immediate success in stopping the ship's construction, since his English contacts did not think America's case yet strong enough under the Enlistment Act to motivate official intervention. Dudley nevertheless promised his chief that he would continue to keep the vessel under surveillance and report all suspicious activity to the port authorities. Dudley's persistence finally paid off. By late March, 1863, he had collected enough evidence, he felt, to justify legal action. Although with time he could have built a stronger case, his informants advised that delay might allow the vessel's escape. Dudley went into action. On March 28 he formally requested Samuel Price Edwards, collector of customs, to seize the ship on grounds that it was being equipped, furnished, and fitted out in order that such vessel shall be employed in the service of the persons assuming to exercise the powers of Government and called the Confederate States of America, and with the intent to cruise and commit hostilities against the Government and citizens of the United States of America, with which Government Her Majesty the Queen is not now at war.2 Two days later Mr. Charles Francis Adams, American minister to England and a constant critic of British failure to suppress...