Battle Kearsarge and Alabama

On 11 June 1864, Alabama arrived in port at Cherbourg, France. Captain Semmes soon requested permission to dry dock and overhaul his ship, much needed after so long a time at sea and so many naval actions. Pursuing the raider, the American sloop-of-war, USS Kearsarge, under the command of Captain John Ancrum Winslow, arrived three days later and took up station just outside the harbor.
On 19 June, Alabama sailed out to meet the Union cruiser.
As Kearsarge turned to meet her opponent, Alabama opened fire. Kearsarge waited patiently until the range had closed to less than 1,000 yards (900 m). According to survivors, the two ships steamed on opposite courses in seven spiraling circles, moving southwesterly with the 3-knot current, each commander trying to cross the bow of his opponent to deliver a heavy raking fire (to "cross the T"). The battle quickly turned against Alabama due to the superior gunnery displayed by Kearsarge and the deteriorated state of Alabama's contaminated powder and fuses. Her most telling shot, fired from the forward 7-inch (178 mm) Blakely pivot rifle, hit very near Kearsarge's vulnerable stern post, the impact binding the ship's rudder badly. That rifled shell, however, failed to explode. If it had done so, it would have seriously disabled Kearsarge's steering, possibly sinking the warship, and ending the contest. In addition, Alabama's too rapid rate-of-fire resulted in frequent poor gunnery, with many of her shots going too high, and as a result Kearsarge benefited little that day from the protection of her outboard chain armor. Semmes later said that the armor on Kearsarge was unknown to him at the time of his decision to issue the challenge to fight, and in the years that followed Semmes steadfastly claimed he would have never fought Kearsarge if he had known she was armor-clad.
Of her 170 crew, the Alabama had 19 fatalities (9 killed and 10 drowned) and 21 wounded Kearsarge rescued the majority of the survivors, but 41 of Alabama's officers and crew, including Semmes, were rescued by John Lancaster's private British steam yacht Deerhound, while Kearsarge stood off to recover her rescue boats as Alabama sank. Captain Winslow was forced to stand by helplessly and watch Deerhound spirit away to England his much sought-after adversary, Captain Semmes, and his surviving shipmates.
During her two-year career as a commerce raider, Alabama damaged Union merchant shipping around the world. The Confederate cruiser claimed 65 prizes valued at nearly $6,000,000 (about $99,000,000 in today's dollars); in 1862 alone 28 were claimed. In an important development in international law, the U.S. government pursued the "Alabama Claims" against Great Britain for the losses caused by Alabama and other raiders fitted out in Britain. A joint arbitration commission awarded the U.S. $15.5 million in damages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Alabama