Legally, they weren't really pirates. They acted like privateers. Almost a letter of marque. We'll settle for Man-o'-Warsmen since that's what they would have preferred, I think. The legitimacy of their papers aren't really relevant since the threat of their 100-pound payloads often proved convincing enough.

Put into service by the nascent Confederate States of America, they set themselves upon the seeking out, capture and (usually by burning) destruction of enemy (US of A) merchant shipping.

It's not really a sea-going story so much as a memoir with some after-the-fact political whitewashing for effect. These sailors never did wrong, never complained, never sailed slow, never missed a shot, never missed stays, never turned down battle and never molested the women. Always gallant, always smiling, polite and cheerful, their enemies were unarmed and under-armed merchant and packets that the Alabama would chase, detain, search, pillage and almost always burn. A sophisticated, mustache-twirling wolf among sheep, indeed.

One cannot argue with the evidence that commercial shipping to and from the northern states was severely disrupted during this time, even if you discount their own crowing somewhat. If that was their goal, they were successful. In seeking out like-sized man-o'-war for combat, they were not.

Their only action ended in disgrace and took place near the end of the war. Whether the captain truly thought the Alabama would prevail, thought they would be blockaded until grounding on their own beef bones or if he knew the war was over and this was akin to Pickett's Charge, the Alabama ended up being out-sailed, out-steamed, out-gunned, out-maneuvered and out-fought in their first and last battle.

This view of the world's navy doesn't much match with O'Brian's of several decades earlier, but don't read it for that reason. Read it because it's a first-person account of a bit of history that most people never knew about: that the Confederate States were the terror of the high seas for a few years in the sixties. ( )