1/350 CSS Sumter Deck No Planking

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ModelFunShipyard

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Product Description

CSS Sumter was originally built as the merchant steamer Habana in 1859 for a New Orleans company. In April 1861 the ship was purchased by the Confederate government and converted to a merchant cruiser, renamed CSS Sumter. Placed under the command of Captain Raphael Semmes, who would later gain fame for commanding the very successful raider CSS Alabama, the ship eluded Union warships and raided US cargo ships around the Caribbeans, before heading to European waters. Briefly stopping in Spain and then Gibraltar, Sumter was blockaded there by a succession of Union vessels for almost a year, during which time the captain and the majority of the crew were reassigned. Having learnt that the acting captain planned to sail out and surrender to a Union warship, the acting master's mate (roughly corresponding to the current rank of sub-lieutenant) shot him; arrested and trialled, he was found guilty and removed from command, while the ship was sold at auction to a company in Liverpool.
But her role in the war did not end there: renamed Gibraltar, the vessel performed blockade runner operations to the Confederacy for the remainder of hostilities, until sold again after 1865 and operated in Baltic commerce. Sumter foundered in 1867 on the Dogger Bank after having sprung a leak during the voyage.