The vessel depict on the stamp is the SNOW SQUALL (foreground) she list for her details, and CSS TUSCALOOSA.
She was built as a wooden bark in 1850 at Philadelphia for T.A. Newhall & Co, Philadelphia.
Tonnage 347 ton gross. Dim. ? Draught 14ft.
Barque rigged
She was captured when under command of Captain William H Salsbury with a crew of 20 men and one woman, on 20 June 1863 by the Confederation raider CSS ALABAMA when underway from Buenos Aires to New York loaded with a cargo of wool and goat skins. At that time she and her cargo were insured for $69.000.
Looking a fast vessel Captain R. Semmes of the ALABAMA commissioned her the next day under command of Lieutenant J.Low and a crew of 15 men as a cruiser and tender to the ALABAMA, renaming her CSS TUSCALOOSA.
Three 12-pounders guns, 20 rifles, ½ a dozen revolvers and ammunition were transferred to the TUSCALOOSA and provision for a 3-month cruise.
She got orders to cruise off Cape of Good Hope.
31 July she captured the American ship SANTEE loaded with a cargo of rice and bonded her for $150.000.
08 August she arrived in Simon’s Bay in South Africa, after taken on board provision she sailed out for a 90 day cruise, her first port of call was Angra Pequena, Southwest Africa to discharge her wool and goat skins.
19 November arrived at St. Cathrine, Brazil for supplies but was not allowed to purchase them, and Lieutenant Low was informed he must sail before nightfall.
After sailing she headed again for Simon’s Bay, where she arrived on 26 December 1863 only to be seized the next day by the British authorities as an uncondemmed prize, which had violated the neutrality of the British Government.
They ordered her to be held until properly reclaimed by her original owners.
Lieutenant Low and his men left the ship and were replaced by an officer and men of HMS NARCISSUS.
The Confederation did not reclaim her and on 10 March 1864 she was released by the British authorities, and handed over to the U.S. consul in Simonstown, then she disappears in the history, the only thing I could find that she most probably was handed over to her owners in Philadelphia, but the American Lloyds Registers of American and Foreign Shipping (on line) did not have a entry on the CONRAD after 1864.
Falkland Islands 2005 24p sg?, scott?
Source: http://college.hmco.com/history/readers ... squall.htm
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships ... 1851).html.
Condemned at Stanley by John Smith. Greyhounds of the Sea by Carl C. Cutler. http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/csn/t.txt many web-sites.