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Sale 82
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Lot 490
17-Star "False Colors" Flag From the CSS Shenandoah c. 1864-65. 39 x 70½"; framed: 48 x 81". Signed on the Hoist: "RI 8." There are several patches and holes on the flag and fabric replacement to fly end on the right side of the two upper stripes and the two bottom stripes.
The CSS Shenandoah was launched at Glasgow, Scotland in 1863 as the merchant ship Sea King, a state-of-the-art clipper for the China tea trade. An iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, she was bought by the Confederate States of America, which sorely needed ships, and sailed out of Liverpool under false papers on Oct. 8, 1864, captained by CS Navy Lieutenant Commanding James Waddell. She became one of the most feared commerce raiders in the Confederate Navy. She carried four 8-inch ("68 pounder") smoothbore cannon, two rifled Whitworth 32-pounders and two 12-pounder signal guns. She never engaged any U.S. Navy vessels, her prey being unarmed merchant ships. During a 12½ month period in 1864-65, during the course of a 58,000-mile cruise, she captured 38 ships and burned 32, taking over a thousand prisoners, not one of whom was killed. Prizes that were not burned were packed with prisoners and sent into neutral ports. The CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the American Civil War, at a whaler in waters off the Aleutian Islands. Her battle ensign was the only Confederate flag to circumnavigate the globe during the Confederacy, and was the last Confederate flag to be lowered by a combatant unit in the Civil War when she surrendered on November 6, 1865, in Liverpool, England.
When a ship flies a "false colors" flag, it is using the flag of another country for a deceitful purpose, normally to allow it to get close enough to board and capture the ship; it is a ploy that has been used by pirates throughout the ages. Such was the purpose of this flag, sewn by the sailors on the Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah. They filled the blue canton with 17 stars, which, from a distance, would resemble a Union flag. In fact, Ohio was the 17th state to join the Union in 1803 and there never was a Union flag with 17 stars; it went from 15 stars (1795-1817) to 20 stars (1817-1818), and by the beginning of the Civil War, there were 34 states in the Union (West Virginia would be admitted in 1863 and Nevada in 1864); however, seeing this flag waving in the breeze from far away, a whaling ship, which carried no guns, would not think to count the stars. Our research found that it is not illegal for a ship to fly false colors as long as the proper flag is hoisted before the ship fires a shot.
Who knows how many of the ships she captured were lured closer by this flag? Although the South lost the war, the CSS Shenandoah was successful in her purpose: she single-handedly decimated the whaling oil industry.
Buyer responsible for third party shipping. Call to make arrangements.
Estimated Value $5,000 - 7,500.
Ex. The Claude Harkins Collection of Americana; purchased in the early 1990s from a small New England auction.
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| Realized $8,610 |
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