Tom Clavin Brings Civil War Naval Battle to Life

Tom Clavin, author of 18 nonfiction books and several national best-sellers, speaks with us about his new book, To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth: The Epic Hunt for the South’s Most Feared Ship – and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War. “…What most people don’t know is that there was this major sea battle in the Atlantic off the coast of France between the Confederacy and the Union and it was in the form of these two ships, the USS Kearsage and the CSS Alabama, and so it’s mostly an untold story.” He wrote this book with his co-author, Phil Keith, who had the naval background to help with the terminology that was used regarding the 1860’s ships, which by this time were part sailing ships, part steam ships. “There were quite a few details in it that I think really helped the reading experience because the reader’s supposed to feel like you’re really on the CSS Alabama and you’re on the USS Kearsage as they’re sailing around the world chasing each other.”

When Clavin and Keith were planning and organizing the structure of the book, Keith suggested the idea of each author taking a captain and writing in the point of view of that captain, that ship and their crew, and that side of the war, and when they were done, they would then come together to merge the two parts. Initially, Clavin didn’t think that would work, but eventually decided to give it a try. He took the side of Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama , while Keith wrote from the point of view of John Winslow of the USS Kearsage. Clavin explained, “As the reader is reading the book, you’re getting the two different sides. The Kearsage is trying to chase down and sink the Alabama. So as this chase around the world is going on, you’re getting that perspective of each captain, and it’s also, not knowing necessarily, from each author…” When they had completed the story and turned in the manuscript, neither one mentioned to their editor that they had written the book in this way. Their editor’s response was, “You would never know. It fit together seamlessly enough. You would never know that each author was taking each side of the story.”

As far as original source materials, were they used in writing this historical nonfiction? Luckily, Keith and Clavin were able to include actual writings from these two captains of their adventures and experiences that could be drawn upon. Semmes, who had enjoyed writing, had written several books that were published during his lifetime, while John Winslow had written hundreds of letters to his wife over the course of his naval career that had survived. In addition, details from journals of junior officers from both sides were also integrated in the story. “We were fortunate, there’s quite a bit of what’s called contemporaneous sources to draw upon, the actual eye-witness accounts of people who were part of these adventures.”