History Channel Documentaries

Raise the Alabama! (2002x7)

Air date: Mar 04, 2002

Follow the career of the legendary Confederate raider and visit the ship's final resting place at the bottom of the English Channel. She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France, where the Alabama had gone for repairs. RAISE THE ALABAMA! descends into the murky depths of the English Channel with the marine archeology team led by the renowned Gordon Watts. 200 feet beneath these foreign waters, the legendary Confederate ship is surrendering her secrets, despite weather conditions that make it safe to dive only a few days a year. The program also documents the Alabama's extraordinary career, from her construction in Liverpool to the surprise attacks that made her the scourge of Union shipping and the valiant, 90-minute battle with the Kearsarge. Confederate and Union documents, contemporary accounts and the testimony of noted scholars brings the complete story of the CSS Alabama to life.