The Alabama Escapes

(NYTimes) Shortly before 10 a.m. on July 29, 1862, a “very dark, sallow man with black hair and eyes, whiskers down each cheek but shaved clean off his chin” escorted several well-dressed men and women on a short boat ride from Liverpool, England. The trip, aboard the recently launched Enrica, took them between the harbor bell buoy and a lightship near the Isle of Man. But around 3 p.m. the host announced a last-minute change in plans: the ship was now scheduled for an overnight sea trial, necessitating an abrupt end to the shipboard party. He ushered his guests onto the accompanying steam tug Hercules for a return to Liverpool. The Enrica would never again tie up at the Merseyside quays.
This “dark, sallow man” was Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch, a 15-year veteran of the United States Navy and an uncle to the 4-year-old Theodore Roosevelt. At the outbreak of the war, though, he volunteered to serve the Southern cause. Continued