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Voyage of the Shenandoah

its attacks on whaling ships in the Pacific Ocean, wreak- ing havoc on merchant shipping. On June 22, while sailing north of Japan in the Bering Sea, the Shenandoah encountered the whaler Jerah Swift , which was based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Shenandoah fired one of its big cannons at the Jerah Swift and scored a direct hit. Waddell had no idea that he had just fired the final shot in the Civil War. Several weeks later, the crew of a merchant ship stopped by the Shenandoah showed Captain Waddell a newspaper story about the surrender of the Confederacy . When he read the news, Waddell sailed for England in an effort to avoid capture by the U.S. Navy. On November 6, 1865—seven months after the surrender of General Lee— the Shenandoah arrived at Liverpool, England, still flying the Confederate flag. The flag was lowered. It would never again fly as the official flag of a nation. “I claim for her officers and men a triumph over their enemies and over every obstacle,” Captain Waddell wrote. “For myself, I claim having done my duty.”

Text-Dependent Question Who was the captain of the C.S.S. Shenandoah ?

Research Project The Shenandoah ’s mission was to attack whaling ships, not American warships. Explain why Confederate leaders proposed this strategy, and what they hoped would occur as a result.