Saturday, August 10, 2013

Day 141, August 10

Without any way of knowing that the war had ended, Waddell captured the whaler William Thompson.  Enraged, the skipper of the William Thompason thrust a copy of a San Francisco newspaper with the headline showing that the war was over in Captain Waddell's face.

Thinking that it was a Yankee trick, Waddell was unimpressed and kept on going after northern whaling ships.  By the end of June of that year (1865), the Shenandoah had captured so many ships and had taken so many prisoners that the prisoners were towed behind the ship in lifeboats.

Waddell captured ten northern whalers on June 28, herded the prisoners on two of the captured ships, and set fire to the other eight.  No one could convince the Southern captain that the war was really over.

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