Alabama, THE, a vessel built at Birkenhead, England in 1862, by Messrs. Laird & Sons, for the Confederate States. At Terceira, one of the Azores, she received guns, stores and coal from another vessel. Captain Semmes then assumed command and on August 24, 1862, named the vessel the Alabama and hoisted the Confederate flag. Before September 16 she had destroyed Federal ships and provisions valued at more than her own cost, and for nearly two years afterward she was the terror of Union merchantmen in every sea. In all, she captured sixty-five vessels and destroyed property estimated at $4,000,000. Swift-sailing cruisers scoured the seas in search of her, and she was at length forced to take refuge in the port of Cherbourg, on the coast of Normandy, June 11, 1864. A few days later, the United States steamer Kearsarge, commanded by Captain Winslow, also arrived at Cherbourg. June 19 a fight took place outside the port, and in less than an hour the Alabama was sunk. Semmes and others were picked up by an English yacht. Not many months after the Alabama had commenced her destructive career, Mr. Seward, secretary of state, informed the British government that the United States would claim damages for injuries done to American commerce by vessels fitted out in British ports. At length Great Britain was induced to submit to arbitration the question of her culpability in regard to the escape of the Alabama. A congress met at Geneva, Dec. 17, 1871, consisting of representatives of Great Britain and the United States and of three members appointed one each by the king of Italy, the president of the Swiss Confederation and the emperor of Brazil. The decision, given Sept. 15, 1872, was adverse to Great Britain, which was ordered to pay to the United States the sum of $16,145,833.