ONLY  CONFEDERATE  NAVY  CAPTAIN  TO  CIRCUMNAVIGATE  WORLD

James Iredell Waddell was born on July 13, 1824, in Pittsboro, North Carolina.  He was appointed a midshipman on September 10, 1841, and began serving in ship-of-the-line USS PENNSYLVANIA the following December.  During the Mexican War he took part in the blockade at Vera Cruz while assigned to the brig USS SOMERS and he subsequently saw sea duty along the coast of South America in sloop-of-war USS GERMANTOWN.  He then completed a tour of duty as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy.  In July 1859 he reported on board USS SAGINAW and later returned from a tour of duty in the Orient with the East Indies Squadron in USS JOHN ADAMS, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War.  As his sympathies lay with the Southern States, Waddell resigned his commission in the Union Navy and his name was struck from the rolls on January 18, 1862.

Waddell secretly entered the service of the Confederacy and received an appointment as Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy on May 27, 1862.  The Confederate States Navy, however, had few ships to which new officers could be assigned.  As a result, new naval officers were assigned to artillery units.  Thus, Waddell participated in the attempt to stop the Union Fleet from investing New Orleans; helped man a gun battery in repulsing the Union flotilla in the Battle of Drewery’s Bluff, Virginia; and performed nearly identical service manning a gun battery in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina, until March 1863.  At that time, he sailed for France in a steamer acquired by the Confederacy.

On October 19, 1864, near Funchal, Madeira, Waddell took command of a screw steamer merchantman which had been acquired by the Confederacy and had earlier ostensibly set sail for India on a trading voyage.  It was off Madeira, however, that the ship underwent the transformation from merchantman to man-of-war.  Fitted out secretly the ship was armed, renamed CSS SHENANDOAH and set course for the Pacific.  Flying the Confederate flag and under orders to concentrate on the previously unmolested Union whaling fleet in the Pacific, CSS SHENANDOAH put five ships to the torch en route to the Cape of Good Hope, and bonded a sixth to carry prisoners to Brazil.  Proceeding through the Indian Ocean, Waddell paused at Melbourne, Australia, long enough to repair a defective propeller shaft in January 1865 and enlist the aid of 42 “stowaways” who appeared on deck soon after departure to swell the ranks of what had previously been an under-strength crew. 

CSS SHENANDOAH captured four Yankee whalers en route to the Sea of Okhotsk, and later operated in the Bering Sea-capturing two dozen prizes between June 21 and 29. One of the latter prizes carried a choice find - relatively recent newspapers.  But the news which the Southerners read was not good - General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox while President Jefferson Davis had issued his defiant “Danville Proclamation” calling for a continued vigorous prosecution of the war against the Union forces. 

Captain Waddell and his crew sighted no additional sails until August 2, 1865, when his ship fell in with a British merchantman who informed SHENANDOAH that the Confederacy had completely collapsed and that SHENANDOAH was thus no longer a man-of-war, but a “pirate” ship without a country which made the erstwhile raider subject to seizure under international law.  During a meeting with his officers and crew it was decided to sail the ship to England rather than surrender the ship in a U.S. port.  Thus the ship was sailed from the Eastern Pacific through a remarkable 17,000-mile voyage, via Cape Horn, to England, all while being sought by Union Navy ships that were unable to catch her.

 On November 2, 1865, CSS SHENANDOAH sailed proudly into Liverpool, England, still flying the Confederate flag where she was surrendered to British authorities for eventual turnover to the United States government.  The very last act of the Civil War was reportedly Captain Waddell walking up the steps of Liverpool Town Hall with a letter to present to the mayor surrendering his vessel to the British government.  During her year as a raider, SHENANDOAH took almost 1,000 prisoners and captured 38 ships, the majority of which were sunk.  She was also the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe.

Because many in the U.S. called for Captain Waddell to be tried as a “pirate,” he remained in England until 1875 when amnesty was offered to him.  He then returned to his native land after an absence of nearly a decade and became a captain in the Pacific Mail Company steamship line.  Given command of steamer CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, Waddell sailed to the South Pacific near waters where, nearly 10 years before, his name and that of his ship had been feared.  Subsequently, Waddell became Commander of the Maryland State Flotilla for the policing of oyster beds.  While thus employed, Waddell died at Annapolis, Maryland, on March 15, 1886 and was buried at St. Anne’s Cemetery in Annapolis.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)