
Wolf of the Deep
Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama
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Narrated by:
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Barrett Whitener
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By:
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Stephen Fox
Burning one Union ship after another, he eluded capture time and again, ravaging Union commerce. But when the tide turned in favor of the Union, foreign ports were less willing to take in the Alabama, forcing Semmes to wander the oceans on a deteriorating ship, his ability to outwit the Union captains diminishing rapidly. Finally, in 1864, a Union ship sank the Alabama - though not her captain - in a world-renowned battle.
©2007 Stephen Fox (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
Memories of Service Afloat regarding the CSS Alabama. I highly recommend this title.
Gary Price, former Petty Officer 2nd Class
USS Ranger CV 61 & USS Carl Vinson CVN 70
Raphael Semmes, Admiral CSN
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Worth a listen
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Great Maritime US Civil War Story!
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The book admirably avoids partisanship when it comes to the War Between the States...at least till the last few chapters, when Fox briefly goes off on a quasi-Marxist rant against the Confederacy, damning Semmes for having "racist" [sic] beliefs. This sudden disgression seems forced and artificial. I'm just guessing here, but it appears this change of voice was imposed by the publishing house. Fox's editor must have been getting a little uneasy about putting out a popular history wherein the hero is a Confederate Navy commander who sinks 100 Yankee ships, while the villains are all Yankee politicians, diplomats, or (in the notable case of Clarence Yonge) money-grubbing turncoats in their employ. So Mr. Fox paid his lip-service to Political Correctness, and in due course the book was published by HarperCollins of New York and London, rather than the Dixieland Vanity Press of Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Fox seems to be the first biographer to uncover the details of Semmes's unfaithful wife and her illegitimate child Anna, conceived while Semmes was off fighting the Mexican War, and delivered shortly after he returned. Semmes behaved as a true Christian gentleman in this crisis; a veritable St Joseph. Although the child was sent away to Eden Hall for some years, she was never disavowed, and is always listed as the fifth of their six children. (Fox offers a bizarre interpretation of Semmes's forbearance and charity, explaining it away as a product of Catholic leniency toward sinfulness.)
For this Audible edition, I have only one complaint about the performance. The reader does not know how to pronounce "Raphael." Here in America, and the English-speaking world in general, the archangelic name is usually "RAY-feeyul." But the narrator consistently says "ROFF-ay-el," making it weirdly exotic, as though Semmes were some sort of Mexican or Levantine. Can it be he's never heard the name before?
Thrilling and excellent (with minor reservations)
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Good book
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Excellent
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boring
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Narrator is good. Author needs a history lesson!
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Wolf of the Deep
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