Semmes
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Semmes. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RAPHAEL, an American naval officer; born in Charles co., Md., Sept. 27, 1809; was appointed, in 1828, a midshipman on board the "Lexington," and rose by successive steps to the rank of commander in 1855. He was nominated, in 1858, secretary to the Lighthouse Board, which situation he held when the war broke out. He then joined the Confederate service, March 26, 1861, and was made commander of the war steamer "Sumter." With this vessel he caused considerable damage to the United States merchant navy, and having been driven into the port of Gibraltar by stress of weather, sold her to a "neutral." He was then ordered to take the command of a vessel built in England, and known at first as "290," which afterward became famous as the "Alabama." His exploits while commander of this vessel, though not so dashing as those of Paul Jones during the first American war, were far more destructive. After having inflicted an enormous amount of loss on the National commerce, the "Alabama," which been into Cherbourg, France, for had repairs, encountered outside the harbor a United States war steamer, the "Kearsarge," Capt. John A. Winslow, June 10, 1864. A French man-of-war followed her to prevent any violation of international law. The fight took place about 9 miles from Cherbourg, and was both short and cisive. The "Kearsarge," a powerful ship, was defended ended by iron chains slung over the bulwarks, on which the shot of the "Alabama" could make but little impression; and in rather more than an hour from the beginning of the fight the "Alabama" was completely disabled. The crew tried to reach the French coast with her, but failed in the attempt, and she began to sink. Commander Semmes, and some of the sailors, including 13 officers, were saved by the boats of an English steam yacht, the "Deerhound," which had accompanied the "Alabama" from Cherbourg to be a spectator of the fight. Semmes succeeded, after some difficulty, in making his way back to the Southern States; but the effectual blockade of their ports deprived him of any further chance of continuing his adventurous career. He wrote the "Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter," and the "Log of the Alabama", (1864); "Memoirs of Service Afloat" (1869). He died in Mobile, Ala., Aug. 30, 1877.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
semz, Raphael (1809-1877), a Confederate naval commander. He was a native of Maryland. He entered the United States navy as a midshipman in 1826. He served with ability during the Mexican War from 1859 to 1861. He was an efficient member of the lighthouse board charged with the construction of lighthouses and signal stations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned his commission and was given the command of the Sumter, the first privateer fitted out by the Confederacy. He captured many American merchantmen. He is charged with the deception of displaying the British flag in order to approach his victims without awakening their suspicion. Later he was placed in command of the Alabama. At the conclusion of the war, he practiced law in Mobile, Alabama, for a time. See Alabama Claims
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts treat the Alabama's end as final: she "began to sink" nine miles off Cherbourg and that was that. In 1984 the wreck was located on the seabed there by the French navy minehunter Circe, and it is now a protected site jointly managed by France and the United States, with recovered items including one of the ship's Blakely guns and its ship's bell. Note too that the duel with the Kearsarge was fought on 19 June 1864, not 10 June as Collier's has it, and Semmes entered the navy as a midshipman in 1826, the date Aiton's gives. Semmes himself has become contested public property: the bronze statue of him that stood in downtown Mobile, the city where he died in 1877, was taken down by the city in June 2020.
Written for this edition, 2026.