Sea of Gray

by Tom Chaffin

The story of 58,000-mile, around-the-world cruise of the Confederacy's last ship afloat. Launched secretly from England in October, 1864, the CSS Shenandoah became the Confederacy's second most successful merchant raider, but--after rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope, stopping long enough in Australia to cause a diplomatic crisis, and navigating the ice floes of Siberia's Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean--Captain Waddell learned that he had been fighting without cause or state, since the Civil War had ended four months earlier. In the eyes of the Union, he had gone from being an enemy combatant to a pirate, a hangable offense. Hunted by Union and British men-of-war, his polyglot crew rife with hints of mutiny, and with dwindling supplies, Waddell elected to camouflage the ship, circumnavigate the globe, and attempt to surrender on English soil.--From publisher description.