Background to CSS Alabama. Alabama was built at Birkenhead, England, for the Confederate Navy. After leaving England in the guise of a merchant ship, she rendezvoused at sea with supply ships, was outfitted as a combatant. Alabama cruised in the North Atlantic and West Indies during 1862, capturing over two-dozen Union merchant ships, of which all but a few were burned. Among those released was the mail steamer Ariel, taken off Cuba on 7 December with hundreds of passengers on board. On 11 January 1863, she sank USS Hatteras . Moving into the South Atlantic, stopped at Cape Town in August, and went on to the East Indies, seizing nearly 40 more merchantmen during the year, destroying the majority and doing immense damage to the seaborne trade of the United States. Needing repairs, Captain Semmes brought her into Cherbourg, France, for repairs in June 1864.