The story of the Alabama, the Confederate raider built at Cammell Lairds secretly during the American Civil War, is one of the topics on a CD-ROM relating the history of Cammell Lairds, which has been produced by Ian Bradley at the Learning Methods Unit of the John Moores University. An illustration from the CD-ROM is reproduced left.

How is this building in present-day Liverpool linked to the story of the Alabama?

The story is also told in a film called "Alabama Roll" by Light Industry Pictures, directed by Lawrence Turnbull and Solon Papadopoulis and produced by Solon and Aimee Jackson. A clip of ALABAMA ROLL on Solon's new website can be downloaded at hi or lo resolution at www.hurricanefilms.net

Expert comment in "Alabama Roll" is provided by a number of eminent historians including:

Edwin C. Bearss, formerly Historian Emeritus, retired on September 30, 1995, after a distinguished forty-year career as a historian with the National Park Service. He began as a park historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, where he initiated a research project that led to the discovery and raising of the gunboat Cairo. Named a "national treasure" by Smithsonian magazine, he is a leading authority on the Civil War and the author of many books and publications. At the National Park Service there is now an Edwin C. Bearss Fellowship.

Norman C. Delaney of Del Mar College, Texas

Frank J. Merli, Associate Professor, Queens College, New York, was guest editor for the Journal of Confederate History Special Commemorative Naval Issue on CSS Alabama, 1990. (right)

John Hope Franklin, Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University, North Carolina. The library website at Duke University has links to resource information.