"Here comes a clipper!" Raphael Semmes cried as he stood with his brother Sam on the bank of the Potomac watching a Baltimore clipper make its way up the river.

  "Clippers are the fastest vessels in the world," said Raphael, who loved the water and ships and anything to do with ships. "And someday I'm going to be the skipper of a clipper!"

  Raphael was already a good sailor, though he was only eight years old. The Semmes boys lived on a Maryland plantation in 1817, near a salt-water creek, and Rafe spent most of his time in his little sailboat. He would much rather sail than help his father plant tobacco.

  Rafe often sailed the creeks that flowed into the Potomac, but he had never ventured on the broad, often rough waters of the big river. One day, though, Rafe took two young friends sailing up Nanjemoy Creek till they saw the Potomac stretch out before them. It looked as wide as an ocean to Rafe, but he was determined not to show any fear in front of his friends. So out the little boat went into the middle of the river.

  It was good fun, until things took a turn for the worse. Rafe spied one of the new steamboats heading toward them. He knew what big waves that steamboat could churn up in its wake. His little boat would toss like a chip on a millpond, and it would take all his skill to keep it from capsizing. There was no time to come about now. Rafe quickly used his head. He turned the tow of the boat to face the oncoming waves, and though it plunged from crest to trough, it rode them out safely. That was one of the first tests of Raphael's courage and seamanship.

  Such early experiences helped Raphael choose his career. Through an uncle he obtained a commission as midshipman in the Navy. He never got his wish to be "the skipper of a clipper." He became instead one of the famous admirals of American history, as well as a "seagoing lawyer," for he studied law also and practiced successfully in peacetime.

  When the War between the States began, Raphael Semmes declared his loyalty to his adopted state of Alabama and to the Confederacy. The South had few ships or captains, but Semmes, with his skill and training, was almost a Navy in himself. He became the worst enemy of Northern shipping; his cruiser Alabama the most daring raider on the seas. "Semmes of the Alabama" was one of the distinguished heroes of the South, feared in war and respected in peace.

  Dorothea J. Snow, who has written of Eli Whitney and John Paul Jones for the Childhood of Famous Americans series, lived for many years in Alabama. She tells an especially good story about the boyhood of the great admiral Alabama proudly claims.

From the dust jacket