The CSS Alabama continued preying on Yankee shipping throughout 1863, prowling off coasts from Brazil to South Africa to Singapore.  The success of the raider, skippered by wily Captain Raphael Semmes, inflamed Anglo-American tensions to dangerous levels.  But shrewd diplomacy by the Lincoln administration eventually convinced John Bull to turn his back on the rebels, leaving Semmes and the Alabama with few ports capable of providing much-needed maintenance and repairs.  After a long-shot voyage to France, the Alabama sailed into her climactic confrontation at the Battle of Cherbourg in 1864, where the USS Kearsarge brought a dramatic conclusion to the famed cruiser's career as the world's most successful commerce raider.

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