British Shipyards and the Confederate Navy
Even with growing acceptance of the Union incorporation of emancipation in their cause for war amongst an international audience, the rest of the Civil War was not without other instances of international controversy. Indeed, in a situation that some considered a reversal of the earlier Trent Affair, Britain came under renewed criticisms and pressure from the North over a maritime issue.
The controversy centered upon the work performed in British shipyards, specifically in the context of the construction and supply of vessels for use by the Confederacy, primarily in the Atlantic. The most prominent of these yards belonged to John Laird Sons & Company, which took multiple orders from the Confederate military throughout the war. The vessels built ranged from blockade runners to circumvent the Union fleet strangling the South, to commerce raiders that preyed upon Union shipping, sailing out of Europe. Such ships would be built and crewed under the guise ofunarmed merchant vessels, and sailed out of Britain to be outfitted militarily and transferred to waiting Confederates elsewhere.
The most infamous of these ships, at least in the eyes of the North, was the CSS Alabama, whose career saw numerous shipping captures and naval victories. Following numerous voyages over two years, the Alabama engaged the USS Kearsage off the coast of France. With her service viewed as little better than piracy by those in the North, criticism was levied at the nation in which the raider was built, giving rise to new suspicions of Confederate sympathy in British industry and government. Northern merchant claims relating to losses inflicted by the Alabama persisted well after the war ended.
The early actions of the Alabama also drew Union attentions to the work of shipyards in Great Britain. Additional vessels continued to be prepared for Confederate interests at the Laird yard in Birkenhead, leading to another controversy in late 1862. New ironclads were discovered to be under construction, information that was reported to both Union and British officials. Following public outcry over Alabama and pressure from the Lincoln administration, the British government moved to seize the two 'Laird rams' in 1863.
The controversy that erupted over the Alabama and the construction of other ironclads led to new fears and anger in the North over the idea that European governments knew about and were allowing this 'intervention' to occur.