In reflecting upon the work involved in Module 3, I thought back to my experience with GIS in undergrad. Despite the area in focus for my project not being particularly data driven, rather more narrative focused, it was refreshing to be able to build a map again. In utilizing ArcGIS’s story mapping program, I sought to tell the story of the CSS Alabama, through the visual aspects of the maps I included and an accompanying narrative to support and identify significant events, aspects, and characteristics over the course of its two year career. Being highly active in harassing Union shipping, particularly between 1862 and 1863, I wanted to be able to convey through the narrative presented both the impact level and scope of the Alabama’s actions at different points.
There were obstacles to being able to place the entirety of the Alabama’s career in a spatial setting. Other than the general course of its journeys throughout the world, the exact locations of where the Alabama took or sunk its 65 victims is difficult to determine. Utilizing the narrative presented by its captain, Raphael Semmes, in The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter, some locations can be determined, or at least given a rough estimate for placement. Landmarks such as islands, regions, or towns are key to plotting the course of the Alabama, though gaps in the narrative where nothing significant occurs can hamper this effort.
Additionally, even if each location was able to plotted with absolute certainty it should be noted that with the story map tools available, a full map that marks all 65 vessels captured would appear cluttered. The approach I’ve taken condenses this down in across each of the three maps, assigning individual points to specific locations within specific date ranges, placed in the rough area in which she would likely have been operating. Some may include multiple captures, or a general look at what the crew of the Alabama were doing in regards to its mission at that time. The narrative of the ship’s story is able to move on, but the actions of the raiders in this regard are not overlooked.
Despite the challenges presented in the information available, I would consider that the three maps created, particularly the second and third, effectively convey a narrative story, even when ignoring the accompanying text. The difference in image scale between the maps was necessary to better display the distances travelled, as well as evoke the an idea of how much time was passing between prizes and other events in the Alabama’s career. Thus, I consider what is shown in these maps to provide sufficient information with which one can understand the role of the Alabama in the overall course of the war, and the threat that it and other vessels of its kind carried, to reflect the described reactions and concerns of Northerners in the accompanying text.
The challenges in using Story Maps, beyond the matter of no definite location data, are largely in editing and presentation as the functionality of the program can contain errors in display, such as missing points, lines, and misaligned maps with inaccurate default view distance. However, these limitations do not attract from the information within final product. Overall, I consider these final maps to provide readers with understandable visual elements that effectively convey both the space and time the Alabama covered in its service to the Confederacy.