Near the Azores on September 17, 1862, the famous Confederate Civil War Raider C.S.S. ALABAMA captured and burned the whaling bark VIRGINIA sailing on the Atlantic Whaling Grounds, under the command of Captain Shadrach R. Tilton of New Bedford. Captain Raphael Semnes of the ALABAMA wrote in his logbook: "We waited till nightfall and the freshening wind whirled the flames high in the darkness…the scene wild and picturesque beyond description."

The Executive Officer of the ALABAMA, First Lieutenant John McIntosh Kell, noted: "To watch the leaping flames on a burning ship gives an indescribable mental excitement…but, it was always with a relief to know that the ships were "tenantless" as the disappeared in lonely grandeur, with specks of vanishing light into the Cradle of the Deep."

An original newspaper heading: "December 16, 1882 — Leslie’s Weekly, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper" can be found at the reverse of the picture.