The Alabama Prize Money
There is a widely held belief, that while Northern Captains and their crews
were benefitting enormously from the money raised by the sale of their prizes,
the men on the Confederate cruisers received no financial reward whatsoever.
This is not strictly true, Officers of the CSS Alabama received a prize
"payment" from Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes after the war had finished.
During the cruise of the Alabama, it had been Semmes practise to have
the chronometer removed from captured vessels. By the time the Alabama
arrived in Cherbourg there was on board, a substantial number of these
chronometers.
In 1867 or 68, Sinclair states that he was handed a sterling check by a
member of a Baltimore banking house, as coming from Captain Semmes, with
the remark "Semmes desires me to pay this to you, as your share of the
sale of the chronometers abraod, and also asks that you give him the address
of Lieuts. Armstrong and Wilson."
Their prizes being burned, or bonded with what ultimately became worthless
documents.
Prior to the fight with the Kearsage, seventy or so
chronometers were passed to the English yacht Hornet, Captain Hewitt
in command, and were eventually landed at Liverpool.
The request was also made that the transaction be kept shady.
