Shenandoah Down Under

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 53

All good things have to come to an end, and in  this final, elegiac bittersweet episode of Shenandoah Down Under Rob and Mob follow the story of the Shenandoah to where so many good stories end, the courtroom. First, Mob recounts the history over 53 episodes of this now award winning podcast*, Shenandoah Down Under. Rob follows up with the final bit of the story, as much as any story ever ends. This episode examines the history of the Alabama Claims tribunal, that met in 1872 to try and resolve legal liability for the depredations of the confederate raiders. Why does the Hotel-de-Ville in Switzerland  have sloping ramps instead of staircases? Where is the worlds longest wooden bench? Why was Sir Alexander Cockburn considered insane by Charles Francis Adams? Find out on this weeks (maybe) final episode of Shenandoah Down Under, the podcast with more Shenandoah than any of the others.

 

*WARNING. Listening to a history podcast about the history podcast itself may cause dizzyness in listeners intolerant of metaphoric recursion

Compliments of the Season from Rob & MOB!

151 years ago today the crew of the CSS Shenandoah sat down to a Christmas dinner somewhere in the Southern Ocean, their festive meal of roast hog somewhat dashed by the heavy weather. (As we recounted in episode #16, their modern day counterparts, the whaler hunters of the Sea Shepard Foundation, are also sitting down to Christmas dinner somewhere on the high seas, only theirs is roast tofurkey…mmmm).

In the 52nd and final episode of our ‘regular season’ we said we’d do a Christmas Special to discuss the ruinously expensive Alabama Claims, but on the invitation of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia, Rob and I are presenting at the January 2016 meeting. So instead of a Christmas Special, we’re now going to make it a “151st Anniversary Special” instead, marking the date the Shenandoah arrived here in Melbourne, Australia (January 25th).

In the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and compliments of the season to all from Rob & MOB of the Shenandoah Down Under podcast!

Tofurky

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 52

In this, the 52nd and final episode in the ‘regular season’ of the Shenandoah Down Under podcast, Rob and MOB discuss the fate of the officers of the Shenandoah after the American Civil War (we’ll go on to discuss the ruinously expensive Alabama Claims in our forthcoming “Christmas Special”)

Branded as “pirates” and unable to return the US, heading south of the border proved to be a popular option. Fortunately for Mr Whittle and his fellow sailors, their comically unsuccessful attempts at farming in Argentina only had to last until lobbying in the halls of Washington DC finally got them all reprieves.

Which officers later became lawyers with rather more success? And which Captain was later recruited by the Maryland State Fisheries, finding glory at last in the so-called “Maryland Oyster War”? Did the oyster pirates flee in terror from the grizzled Confederate veteran as he attacked their boats with a bow-mounted howitzer?

Find out in this end-of-season episode of Shenandoah Down Under, the one where Captain Waddell says for the final time “burn them, burn them all!”

JamesIredellWaddellCSA

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 51

At last, after its 13 month circumnavigation of the globe, the CSS Shenandoah returns to Liverpool! The Confederate flag is lowered for the final time and the ship is taken into the charge of the British Customs Office. With the American Civil War back home now over for many months, its reappearance is something of an embarrassment for everyone.

While the British government tries to figure out what to do with the ship and its crew, what do the Shenandoah’s Officers do to their Customs Officer captors? If your answer is get them so drunk that they go to sleep in the lee scuppers, then you have been paying attention!

And so the voyage of the Shenandoah ends, with one last act of farce, as an English Naval captain comes on board and asks all of the obviously ethnically diverse crew if they are Southerners, for if they are they’ll be allowed to go free. All to a man answer (attempting as best they can in Good ‘ol Boy southern accents) “Yes”, and so are allowed to leave, whistling Dixie…

…and in next week’s episode, we’ll recount the multifarious fates of the Confederate pirates, most of whom do not return to American for many a year; the ignominious end of the CSS Shenandoah itself; and why the Shenandoah’s “treaty offensive and defensive with the whales” meant we still have whales to protect today.

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 50

All things come to an end, and the 50th episode of Shenandoah Down Under sees the end drawing very close… months after the war has ended, the last Confederate cruiser slips quietly into into English territorial waters, and is therefore unlikely to be taken by a US gunboat.
 
This means the ship’s company can be paid off. But instead of the “buckets of gold” promised by Captain Waddell at the beginning of the adventure, each man receives the princely sum of one dollar for every seven owed. Executive Officer Whittle’s journal receives its last forlorn entry on this news, but Surgeon Lining remains an ever-reliable source of both gossip and medical details. And what of Sergeant Canning, the mysteriously ailing Englishman and putative survivor of Shiloh? Will he breath his last, just as they are returning to his homeland? Find out in this significant episode of Shenandoah Down Under.

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 49

Illness and death haunt the CSS Shenandoah in this week’s episode, as William Bill the Hawaiian and Sergeant Canning the mysterious Englishman lie on their deathbeds. The very skies seem to bear witness to the despair of the crew as a total eclipse of the sun blocks out even the light of day.

Poor William Bill is suffering from final stages of venereal disease, while Mr Canning is slowly succumbing an unhealed bullet wound which he claims he suffered at Shiloh. Will Canning ever see his English wife again? Did he care, given she wasn’t with him when he joined the ship in Australia and he never talks about her? Will the Confederate flag be lowered for the second-last time to mark the death of a shipmate? Find out in this week’s episode of Shenandoah Down Under, where the moon eats the sun and a Hawaiian dies far from home under a strange and defeated flag.

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 48

Oh dear, in this new episode, the feuding on board the ship has reached new heights, with Surgeon McNulty calling Mr Blacker an “English Irish Orangeman”, and thereby deftly uniting race and religion in one deadly insult.

Can things get worse? Can they ever! When Executive Officer Whittle tries to remonstrate with the drunken McNulty, McNulty “shows him his pistol” and there is a physical altercation. This can only mean one thing between gentlemen, and that is a duel (of course if McNulty was an ordinary crewman XO Whittle would have cheerfully had him triced up in irons and a gag, so it is good to be a gentleman after all…)

As if this was not enough for one episode, Rob finally delivers on his promise to describe how to measure the height of an iceberg using a sextant. To use this method you need one or more icebergs, a sextant, a moving ship, and a knowledge of trigonometry.

As Rob admittedly has none of these things the result is something of a thought experiment; however he does also describe an old loggers’ trick for working out if a tree you’re cutting down will fall on your house, using only your arm and a stick. What is the essential requirement for the length of the stick? Find out in the 48th episode of Shenandoah Down Under, aka Confederate Pirates Save the Whales, the one where men show their pistols (to other men).

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 47

As the CSS Shenandoah heads towards the Falkland Islands, Rob and MOB explain how the sadly deficient wi-fi services offered in one-star German Youth Hostels has contributed to the recent lack of regularly appearing “Shenandoah Down Under” episodes. How good was this wi-fi? About as good as the relationships of the officers and the captain aboard the Shenandoah, where rumour, back-biting, petitions and counter-petitions are all the rage. Will the ship go to Cape Town or Liverpool? (spoiler, it’s Liverpool). What was Captain Waddell’s master plan in calling yet another council of officers? Which officer has challenged Executive Officer Whittle to a duel? Find out in a rather acrimonious episode of Shenandoah Down Under!

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 46

In Episode 46 of Shenandoah Down Under, the ship navigates the perilous waters of Cape Horn, seeking to get back to Liverpool without encountering Union warships (or indeed anyone else who could alert Union warships). But the Captain is otherwise preoccupied, asserting his authority in the most unlikely of places. Last month, it was fruitlessly trying to ban his officers from smoking on watch; now, he decrees there will be no hammocks strung up in the wardroom. Once again the victim of this officiousness is the unfortunate Lieutenant Debney Minor Scales, who must by now be feeling in a very minor key indeed.

One hundred and fifty years later Rob and MOB conclude their wide-ranging interview with Barry Crompton of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia. Did Captain Waddell meet Victorian Governer Darling in church, and if so which church? Find out in episode 46 of Shenandoah Down Under, the one with the hammocks.

Shenandoah Down Under Episode 45

In Episode 45 of Shenandoah Down Under, Rob and MOB are once again very proud to host Barry Crompton of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia, and there is a a typically wide-ranging discussion, largely concerning the various primary and secondary sources used to research the CSS Shenandoah. Barry talks about a couple of new books about the voyage, and also some of the oldest – the journals and diaries kept by the officers on board. Whose diary was discovered only this year and has never been published? Who died in Egypt falling off a horse, and who is helping relieve Captain Waddell’s stress with some chloroform liniment and a hot toddy? Find out on this week’s episode of Shenandoah Down Under.