PROCEEDINGS OF SHIPS OF WAR OF THE SO-STYLED CONFEDERATE STATES OF NORTH AMERICA AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

Official grey paper document, 14 pages with letters exchanged between Rear-Admiral Sir B. Walker to the Secretary of the Admiralty, "Narcissus," Simon's Bay, August 19, 1863 and Captain Semmes of the Alabama, Governor P.E. Wodehouse, Government House, Cape Town, P.J. Denyssen, Attorney-General’s Office, Cape Town, Walter Graham, United States Consulate, Cape Town, Rawson W. Rawson, Colonial Secretary, and others discussing the CSS Alabama's South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid (August to September 1863 off the coasts of Brazil and South Africa.)

14 pages, printed on grey paper and sewn, stamp of the Admiralty Library at the top corner of the front page.

CSS Alabama worked its way slowly back and forth in the vicinity of Cape Town in one of the least successful of its seven raids, capturing a few U.S. barks. While operating in this area, the United States Navy's USS Vanderbilt put into Simon's Town in pursuit of Alabama, but had no luck in finding the evasive Confederate raider. Alabama rendezvoused a few times with its allied ship,CSSTuscaloosa. 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Alabama%27s_South_African_Expeditionary_Raid)

'The activities of the Alabama caused considerable interest in Cape Town and the local press. "The inhabitants", wrote Murray (the editor of The Argus) "rich and poor, halt, maimed, lame and blind - not only old men and maidens, young men and children, but all women 'dragons and all deep' went off to see the Alabama, her Captain and her officers...", It was Victorian reporting at its most extreme....But on the whole the colony abandoned itself to an orgy of hero-worship which even Captain Semmes found a trifle startling.” He was more puzzled than flattered by the reception he had met with at the Cape, which was more enthusiastic than any he had had before. 'Do you know', said he, pointing to the bouquet of flowers and other little tokens left or sent on board, 'that my own countrymen would not have done as much for me, or anybody else. They are not fond of hero-worship. You English are a strange people'..... The adulation, the excitement, the heartaches, and the disappointments are forgotten; all that remains are the words of the folk-song that originated in the Malay quarter of Cape Town, as a perpetual reminder of 'Alabama Fever'." Daar Kom die Alabama.

Bradlow (E.& F.) Here Comes the Alabama, (A.A. Balkema, 1958, pages 69/70).

CSS Alabama, a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy. The vessel was built in Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England, by John Laird Sons and Company. Launched as Enrica, she was fitted out as a cruiser and commissioned as CSS Alabama on August 24, 1862. Under Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama served as a successful commerce raider, attacking, capturing, and burning Union merchant and naval ships in the North Atlantic, as well as intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. The Alabama continued its wrath through the West Indies and further into the East Indies, destroying over seven ships before returning to Europe. On June 11, 1864, the Alabama arrived at Cherbourg, France, where she was overhauled. Shortly after, a Union sloop-of-war, USS Kearsarge, arrived; and on June 19, the Battle of Cherbourg commenced outside the port of Cherbourg, France, whereby the Kearsarge sank the Alabama in approximately one hour after the Alabama's opening shot.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Alabama)