(drums banging) - [Seaman] What seamen is that?

- We are the confederate seamen of Alabama.

(canons firing) (dreary music) - [Sims] Dearest Dan, the Confederate Navy has commissioned me to do the enemy's commerce the greatest injury in the shortest amount of time.

- Sims was essentially responsible for decimating the Union Merchant fleet.

- [Stephen Fox] Gideon Wells was the secretary of the Navy.

They not only couldn't sink him, they couldn't find him.

(dreary music) There's a lot of chicanery in constructing the Alabama because England was not supposed to build any war ships for either side.

- [Amanda Foreman] There was a fifth colony in Britain that was actively, secretly supporting the South.

Being the underdog gave you a kind of moral leap ahead of all others.

♪ Oh roll Alabama roll ♪ - [Craig Symonds] He's kind of a celebrity.

Hundreds of ships are looking for him, he just shows 'em his heels and off he goes.

- [Stephen Fox] The fact is it was not inevitable who would win the Civil War.

- [Wells] Now, President Lincoln has determined we must free the slaves by proclamation or be ourselves subdued.

- I thought that your war had arisen out of the slavery question.

- That is a common mistake of foreigners.

- You are the wife of Raphael Sims the pirate?

An advocate of slavery?

(bird chirping) - I am an abolitionist.

(steady music) (explosion booms) (steady music) (waves rushing) (ship creaking) (canons booming) (steady music) (seamen shouting) (steady music) - Commander Sims, you're under arrest.