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The Most Perfect Cruiser is the story of how the Confederacy got to sea the most deadly of its raiders, the C.S.S. Alabama. It is a both a complex and a human tale, one that occurred entirely outside of North America. We encounter the ambitions of the brilliant James Dunwoody Bulloch, the Confederate secret naval agent who brought Alabama into being thinking he would command her; and her resourceful captain, Raphael Semmes, whose previous success had already alarmed the North. As for the Alabama, she began her maiden voyage in the teeth of a rising gale, barely escaping the clutches of a Union warship and the belated efforts of British authorities to seize her. Read more

About Stephen Kinnaman

Stephen Kinnaman is an offshore and marine technology professional with over thirty-five years of experience. He was born in 1950 and grew up in upstate New York and New Jersey. He and his wife, Maureen, currently reside in Chappell Hill, Texas. Read more

Excerpt from the Book

The story of Raphael Semmes and the Confederate States Steamer Alabama has always fascinated me. As a youngster I can clearly remember reading an abridged paperback edition of Semmes’ Memoirs of Service Afloat. It was better than any novel. I drew picture after picture of Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah and all the other famous Confederate cruisers.
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$14.95 / Perfectbound
ISBN: 9781598589078
292 pages
Also available at fine
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