History of a seaman Martin Molk: (just coincidence?)
Martin Molk,
born England (?); Ordinary Seaman, CSS Alabama, 1862-3; transferred to CSS Tuscaloosa, June 21, 1863, as Boatswain's Mate; later served on CSS Rappahannock, 1864. [ORN 1, 2, 713; William Marvel; CSS Rappahannock Muster Roll.] (
http://rblong.net/mo.html)
Built in England and manned by an English crew with Confederate officers, the CSS Alabama was the most successful and notorious Confederate raiding vessel of the Civil War. Between the summer of 1862 and the spring of 1864, the Alabama captured 65 vessels flying the U.S. flag and sank one Union warship.
On 25st of November 25 Martin Molk first shipped aboard the CSS Alabama as an ordinary seaman from the tender Agrippina (from London), at Blanquilla Island, Venezuela, when he was exchanged together with two other seamen, for crew members from the Alabama who had been discharged either through illness or some other sort of incapacity.
CSS Rappahannock, built in England in 1857, was placed in commission as a Confederate Navy ship. A machinery breakdown forced her to put into Calais, France, for repairs and she was detained there by the French Government throughout the rest of the Civil War. The remained crew, only 12 deck hands, was discharched at the end of march 1865.
