Alabama | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Alabama

Alabama, Confederate warship constructed in Britain during the American Civil War. The US sought to have the ship detained in Britain, but it escaped. Until it was sunk in June 1864, it attacked Union (Northern) shipping, inflicting great losses.

Alabama

Alabama, Confederate warship constructed in Britain during the American Civil War. The US sought to have the ship detained in Britain, but it escaped. Until it was sunk in June 1864, it attacked Union (Northern) shipping, inflicting great losses. American claims for compensation from Britain, submitted to arbitration in 1871, were omitted from negotiations for the Treaty of Washington, despite an American suggestion that compensation might be made by cession of some Canadian territory. In 1872 a Geneva tribunal awarded $15.5 million in gold to the US in compensation.