Raphael Semmes was an officer in the Confederate Navy. During the American Civil War he was assigned the command of the CSS Sumter. Semmes's command lasted only six months, but during that time he ranged wide, raiding U.S. commercial shipping in both the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. His actions accounted for the loss of 18 merchant vessels.
The CSS Sumter burning the Neapolitan off gibraltar ( Mid 19th century - Louis Dodd)
By January 1862, thr Sumter required both fuel and a major overhaul. Semmes took his ship to Gibraltar as Britain - officially neutral - tended to be sympathetic towards the Confederates. In 1864, The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter - From the Private Journals of and other papers of Commander R. Semmes CSN was published in New York.
I have no idea who compiled it but the letters and documents include a smallish section on Semmes' thoughts on Gibraltar during the time he was stuck there in 1861. Here are what I consider to be a few appropriate quotes.
I have no idea who compiled it but the letters and documents include a smallish section on Semmes' thoughts on Gibraltar during the time he was stuck there in 1861. Here are what I consider to be a few appropriate quotes.
Jan 20th 1862 - At 2 p.m. I landed at the arsenal and called upon the commanding naval officer, who received me very politely. I asked the loan of an anchor, having but one, and the Captain promised to supply me with one if there should be no objection on the part of the law officers of the Crown !
Walked from the Captain's little oasis - scooped out as it were from the surface of the Rock, with a nice garden-plot and trees, shrubbery, &c. down into the town, and called on Lieutenant-General Sir W. J. Codrington, K.C.B., the Governor, an agreeable type of an English gentleman of about fifty to fifty-five years of age.
William Codrington
The Governor tendered me the facilities of the market, etc, and in the course of conversation said he should object to my making Gibraltar a station, at which to be at anchor for the purpose of sallying out into the Strait and seizing my prey. I told him that this had been settled as contrary to law by his own distinguished judge, Sir William Scott, sixty years ago, and that he might rely upon my taking no step whatever violative of the neutrality of England, so long as I remained in her ports, etc.
The garrison is about several thousand strong, and it being Sunday, the parade-ground and streets were thronged with gay uniforms. Spain, with her hereditary jealousy and imperiousness of character, is very formal and strict about intercourse with the Rock. The Duke of Beaufort visited us to-day.
January 21st - To-day Colonel Freemantle came on board to return my visit on the part of the Governor and to read to me, by the latter's direction, a memorandum of the conversation which had passed between us on Sunday. . . . The town of Gibraltar, from the fact that the houses are built on the side of the Rock and stand one above the other, presents the beautiful spectacle every night of a city illuminated. Colonel Freemantle politely requested me to visit the various batteries etc.
January 22nd - Wind still from westward. At 10, went on shore to the Catholic Church; arrived as the military Mass ended: many Catholics in the army. Small church, with groined arches - remnant of Spanish times -
(Mid 19th Century - Old Inhabitant)
After church took a delightful stroll into the country, just above the Alameda - It is a labyrinth of agave and flowers and shrubbery, among which the path zigzags up the mountain-side; geraniums, and jonquils, and mignonette, and lilies are wild. One is only surprised, after looking at the apparently barren face of the rock, to find so much sweetness of Mother Earth.
I clambered up a couple of hundred feet, and from that height the bay, the coasts of Spain, and sleeping Africa, robed in the azure hue of distance, and the numerous sail, some under way, and others lying like so many cock-boats, as seen from the height, at their anchors - the latteen craft speaking of the far East etc. Statue of General Elliot. (sic)
A number of fine-looking Moors in the streets, picturesque in their loose dresses and snowy turbans - Gibraltar is indeed, a city of the world, where one sees every variety of costume, and hears all tongues. Spanish is the predominant language among the commercial classes.
Gibraltar . . . “where one sees every variety of costume” (1844 - D.F. Molel)
Major-General Sir John Inglis (the hero of Lucknow), of the English army, Governor of Corfu, having arrived on his way to the Ionian Islands, visited us to-day to see our ship, which he was kind enough to say had become "quite distinguished."
January 29th - Visited the shore, and went to the Military Library and Reading Room, where I found the principal London journals. Reported that the English Government will consult Parliament about recognising us. Took a long stroll to the east end of the Rock - exceedingly broken and picturesque.
Catalan Bay - The east side of the Rock - “exceedingly broken and picturesque”
Came upon a Moorish burying-ground, looking out upon Africa. Some of the marble slabs had become almost disintegrated by the weather, so old were they. What a history of human affections, hopes, aspirations, tribulations, and disappointments lay buried here! New works, adding additional strength to this renowned fortress, are still going on.
January 30th - Visited, in company with Colonel Freemantle, the famous fortifications, passing through the galleries — three tiers, one above the other — in the north end of the Rock. These are huge tunnels, extending from a third to half a mile, with embrasures from space to space for cannon - the solid Rock forming the casemates. From these galleries we emerged out on a narrow footway cut in the rock, and stood perpendicularly over the sea breaking at our feet, and had a fine view of the N.E. face of the Rock rising in a magnificent mass some 1500 feet.
The view towards Spain from the Windsor Gallery (1830s - William Mein Smith)
From this point a tower, called the Queen of Spain's Chair, was pointed out to me - on the height opposite, to the northward. The legend connected with which is, that during one of the sieges of 1752, (sic) the Queen of Spain came to this eminence to witness the assault and capture of the place, and vowed she would not descend therefrom until the flag of Spain should wave from the Rock.
The Queen of Spain's Chair - The tower on the right (1853 - G.P. Pechell)
The assault failed, and the Queen in performance of her vow refused to descend, until the Governor of Gibraltar, hearing of the determination of her Majesty, sent her word that he would at a given hour hoist the Spanish ensign that she might descend. This was done, and the Queen was rescued from her predicament without breaking her word.
This old chestnut is dealt with elsewhere - there was no Queen, and the siege he ought to be referring to is the Great Siege of 1779-1783.
Having finished our inspection of the Rock, we went through the town, and passed out on to the neutral ground, from which I returned after a four hours' ride completely broken down. On the south end, under a perpendicular wall of rock, that in summer breaks the sun from an early hour in the afternoon, is the Governor's summer residence, to which he resorts for protection against the heat.
Governor’s Cottage (Mid 19th century - Crop - Unknown)
We met his Excellency and lady, who had come out to look at their summer home, &c. Colonel Freemantle told me that the Spanish Consul, whom he pointed out as we passed the Alameda, had stated that I was a Spaniard, or at least that my father was a native of Catalonia - that I spoke Catalan as well as English, and that my name was a common one in that province.
February 1st - Witnessed a review of about five thousand troops in the Alameda. Drums draped with black, and the ornaments of the officers covered with black crape in respect to the memory of the Prince Consort.
Not quite five thousand soldiers but quite a few of them square bashing in the Alameda Grand Parade ground (1897 - The Queen’s Empire)
Meanwhile Captain Semmes was more or less trapped in Gibraltar because neither the colonial authorities nor the local merchants were willing to sell him any coal. Worse still his men were deserting him and claiming the protection of the US Consul on the Rock - Horatio Sprague. In April 1862 with several U.S. warships anchored in the Bay preventing her escape. Semmes gave up on the Sumter and left Gibraltar.
USS Tuscarora USS Ino and USS Kearsarge lying in wait in the Bay
In July, he travelled to the Azores, where he took command of a new ship - the cruiser CSS Alabama, the most successful commerce raider in maritime history taking an incredible 65 prizes - some sources suggest it was actually 82 - before she was sunk in 1864.
The sinking of the CSS Alabama (1864)