Thanks Les, I'll enjoy reading that. However, the book I had in mind was not by Semmes but one of his officers. It was over five years ago that I found it so have forgotten a lot of the content but recall one remark he made about the British contingent of the crew, who were apparently a pretty rough and tough lot, saying that they only worked well when given rough treatment. They were contemptuous of anyone who spoke to them decently.

As I remember the writer said that the Alabama's steering was damaged. There are some accounts of the fight on the Net which repeat this. She then broke up under the impact of shelling, and he commended the courage of the ship's surgeon (I think he was Scottish) who was drowned.

Charley Noble's post above jogged my memory and he is correct. The Alabama was called something else (forgotten what it was) when launched, but during a mid-Atlantic commissioning ceremony during which the Confederate flag was raised she was formally named.

While passing through South African waters she captured a small vessel which Semmes used as a tender for a while. The ship and crew were given a huge welcome in Cape Town, but a conversation with a South African convinces me that the African Alabama song above does not refer to the CSS warship but to a coastal trader. No doubt the high regard white south Africans had for the ship made hers a popular name.