The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-04-06
Sale d'Alabar11a
To Be Given
Portrait

bic and one of Alabama's sons of
which we are justly proud. Mrs. 7.
Darlington Semple, who will give a
portrait of Admiral Semmes to the
Sale dAlabama, is also a native Ala
bamian and well known in Birmingham,
where she formerly made her home. She
is head of the Semple school in New
York, which has among its alumnae
many Birmingham girls.
The article reads:
I'm the old Hotel de Vile in Geneva,
Switzerland massive sixteenth CEN
fury Florentine structure with a great
graveled ramp by which an equestrian
mayor and his aides could ride to the
third floor dismount and leave their
horses with hostlers-there is n room
known as the Sale d'Alabama. The
room takes its name not from the
sovereign state of that name, but from
certain British-built. rakish, daunt-
less warship, which flew the Confed-
crate flag and wrought such havoc
upon the ships of the United States
that. years afterward, representatives
of five great nations had to meet here
to settle forever Civil war claims for the
damage. And thereby was averted n
probable war between Great Britain and
tne Onlteu states.
In the some room, some years earlier,
lin 1864 to be exact-the Swiss Cen
eral du -Four had headed the first con-
ventiOn of the society for the Ameliora-
ton of the Sufferings of Victims of
here the Swiss flag, a white cross on a
red field, was reversed to form the en-
blem of the new organization.
This Sale d'Alaabma is not a large
room, twenty-five by thirty-five feet at
most. The walls are hung in a dark
red brocaded silk the furnishings are
black walnut. Around the long centre
table the Commissioners of Geneva Can
ton still gather and deliberate at in
tervals. A tablet just opposite the door
bears an inscription which may be
translated thus: ION September II,
1872, the Arbitration Tribunal, consti-
tuted by the treaty Washington, pro-
muigated in this room it's decision re-
garding the Alabama claims. In this
way was settled in a pacific measure
the difference that had arisen between
the United States of America and Great
Britain"
THE difference involved the claim
made by the United States against
Great Britain in connection with build
ing for the Confederate government a
ship whose commerce-destroying exploits
inspired the careers of the Emden and
other German rovers of the great war.
The Alabama, built by Laird & Son of
Liverpool, took the ways in 1862 under
command of Captain latter AdmiraD
Raphael Semmes of Mobile, Ala. Great
secrecy was maintained during the
building of the vessel, but news of it
somehow leaked out to the United
States and strong protest was made
to England. Before England would
take any definite action, the ship had
spread her sails and gone. During the
two years in which she roamed the seas,
searching for enemy merchant vessels,
she rolled up a score of sixty-five craft,
and the damage done was estimated at
ten millions of dollars, not to mention
the increasingly heavy insurance risks
which resulted.
ITO the popular mind of Civil war
days the Alabama was a privateer, to
use a polite name; some went so far
as to call her a pirate ship. But mas
much as she was a regularly commits
stoned ship of the Confederate states
and her commander. Semmes, held an
equally valid commission, her preying
upon northern shipping could no more
be considered the acts of piracy than
the sinking of blOckade-runners by the
blockade ships of the United States
navy. She was the dreadnought of the
sixties and many are the rollickling
songs that her admirers wrote of her
prowess, of the Yankee sailors shaking
in their shoes whenever the rakish fun
mel and broad canvass of the Alabama
hove in sight
But she met with her Waterloo be-
fore the guns of the United States ship
Kearsarge, somewhat heavier vessel
with slightly more armament. on June
10, 1864. in the Harbor Of Cherbourg.-
Captain Semmes fired several torpedoes
at his enemy, but these having been on
board for several years failed to ex-
plode properly. In a museum in Chi
cago is a preserved portion of the Kear-
sage bearing a deeply -imbcdded unex-
p.oded torpedo; if it had exploded who
known but American naval history
might have been different!'
las it was, Captain Semmes and his
men continued to man the guns until
their ship began to settle in the water,
having been torn through with the
enemy's solid shot. Then Semmes
flung his jeweled sword Ga gift from
England) into the sea, and with his
men followed suit. They swan out of
range of the whirlpool that would fol-
low the sinking, and turned back in
time to see the Alabama fling her grace
full bowspirit in the air like an animal
in pain and then settle down out of
sight.
"Semmes and number Of the crew
were rescued by the English yacht Deer
hound, which had brought out party
of sightseers from Cherbourg. The Eng
lish government refused to deliver up
these men when the United States de-
manded them. This incident added to
the intense feeling which had already
been created by the building of the ship,
and figured largely in the case of the
Alabama as presented in the Sale
Id'Alabama in Geneva in 1872. The
claims were settled to the tune of
fifteen and half millions.
Against the left wall of the room,
4 lust between two doors that open upon
the inner court of the Hotel de Vile,
stands a table about eight feet long,
bearing the replica of the Liberty bell
and the nickeled pillow of peace" and
pruning hook, wrought from the melted
swords of men who had fought in the
American Civil war, and who had sur
rendered their personal side arms for
the purpose. Above these biblical sym
bols of the time of universal peace will
hang in very few months a portrait
of the Confederate Admiral Raphael
Semmes, commander of the Alabama.
The portrait. painted recently by George
Nelson of New York from photographs
in possession of the Semmes family, will
be presented by Mrs. T. Darlington
] Snmnle of New York to the Canton o.