The Last Shot

In 1865, the Confederate raider Shenandoah destroyed a fleet of more than two dozen New England whaling ships off the coast of Alaska. It was decisive victory for the South -- three months after its official surrender to the Yankees.

Lynn Schooler re-creates this remarkable but little-known episode in Civil War history in The Last Shot. Before the Shenandoah's voyage was over, she captured or sank thirty-eight ships, took more than a thousand prisoners, and led the Union Navy on a chase that circumnavigated the globe. The single Confederate ship nearly ended the New England whaling industry, and would put a stop to America's growing hegemony over worldwide shipping. The Last Shot proves that, contrary to popular belief, the Civil War did not end on a battlefield in Virginia, but in a ship just south of the Arctic Circle.

Lynn Schooler, author of The Blue Bear, has lived in Alaska for more than thirty years. During that time, he has built his own cabin in the remote wilderness and worked as a commercial fisherman, a shipwright, a trapper, a professional seaman, a wildlife photographer, and a wilderness guide. He is a two-time winner of Alaska magazine's grand prize for wildlife photography, and winner of the National Wildlife grand prize.

"A first-rate sea saga ... Schooler does an excellent job of portraying the ship, her colorful crew and her astonishing mission, putting into clear perspective a key Civil War episode." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)