AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Manuscript map made aboard ship of a transatlantic voyage from 1861 to 1863, visiting both North and South in the American Civil War. Made aboard HMS Rinaldo, the map charts its two-year voyage, in which it visited the capitals of both sides during the Civil War and transported Confederate emissaries, while surviving two serious weather incidents. The accomplished map shows the wide-ranging route of the ship, and includes drawings of the early Confederate flag, the "Stars and Bars".Rinaldo was a Camelion-class wooden screw sloop launched in 1860 and in operation until 1884. It was commanded by William Nathan Wrighte Hewett, who won a Victoria Cross during the Crimean War. The ship sailed from Spithead on 2 June 1861, but, as noted on the map, "sprang a leak" 400 miles offshore, and returned to Plymouth on 18 June. It set off again in July, and arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, following a stop in Madeira. It then travelled on to New York. In December, it went to Cape Cod to collect the Confederate emissaries, John Slidell and James Murray Mason. Slidell and Mason had been forcibly removed from the British steamer Trent, causing a diplomatic incident - the Trent Affair - between Britain and the Union government which came close to war. It then set off to Halifax where they could be transported back to Britain. However, harsh conditions off the coast of Newfoundland ensured the ship instead travelled to Bermuda. After it failed to arrive at Halifax, newspapers reported the ship

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