The Powhatan Project (1)

This is the closing paragraph of the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships’ entry on the CSS Alabama:

In her 21-month cruise to the four corners of the globe, ALABAMA wrought havoc among United States merchant shipping, taking more than 60 prizes valued at nearly $6,000,000. The most famous of the Confederate cruisers, her capture caused the Federal Navy Department to divert warships from the blockade to intercepting positions at focal points on the world's trade routes. Northern shipowners were compelled to delay sailings to pay increased maritime insurance premiums and in many cases, to transfer ships to foreign registry. ALABAMA’s exploits buoyed the morale of the South during some of its darkest days, and wrote a chapter of daring in the brief history of the Confederate States Navy.

This is TFSmith’s DANFS entry on the USS Powhatan:

In her 14-month cruise to the four corners of the globe, Powhatan wrought havoc among British merchant shipping, taking more than 30 prizes valued at nearly $3,000,000. The most famous of the American cruisers, her captures caused the Admiralty to divert warships from the blockade or convoy duty to intercepting positions at focal points on the world's trade routes, and raised many questions from members of Parliament, notably from Disraeli’s Conservatives, with ties to the City of London’s financial interests. British shipowners were compelled to delay sailings, to pay increased maritime insurance premiums, and, in many cases, to transfer ships to foreign registry. Powhatan's exploits wrote a chapter of daring in the history of the United States Navy.

Once again, a quick find-and-replace acts as a substitute for originality. However, in lazily translating the Alabama’s career to the Powhatan, TFSmith creates a vast number of flaws and errors. We will deal with some of these in a series of future articles, but one short problem may as well be pointed out here.

Powhatan’s prizes are given the same average value as Alabama’s. However, these speculative prizes include ‘a dozen fishing vessels from the Maritimes’, which amount for a third of Powhatan's total captures. These are a proxy for the sixteen whaling ships which CSS Alabama captured, which represented 25% of her overall captures. Yet even a moment's thought will show that there is almost no comparison between the two types of ship, other than in the delusions of TFSmith.

The whalers Alabama captured were often returning after several years cruising, carrying three hundred and forty, four hundred and twenty five, and even eleven hundred barrels of oil at c.33 gallons per barrel. Even if they ships carried no whalebone, and only the cheapest whale oil valued at 44.875c per gallon, their cargoes were worth between five thousand and sixteen thousand dollars. These were sums beyond even the wildest dreams of a fisherman. Moreover, the whalers themselves were much more expensive ships than fishing vessels, which were small vessels, and often built locally in the Maritimes from fast-decaying softwood. Put simply, there was considerable capital tied up in a whaling voyage, and very little in a fishing boat. Yet TFSmith deems both types of capture to be of equivalent value.

This lack of critical thought, the complete failure of the author to question whether what he is writing makes sense, permeates not just the section about the Powhatan but the entire timeline.