He was told to stop them at all costs. How real the threat was can be gauged by Union losses-half of the U.S. merchant fleet were lost in the War.
It was becoming harder for the British Government to pretend that these were not being built for the Confederate Navy; made even harder when English financiers looking for funds for the ships boasted they could be underwritten by the Confederate Government! Other events in the War - Gettysburg and Vicksburg may also have persuaded the British Government they should not be quite so helpful to the Confederacy, and the latter’s dream of a battle fleet ebbed away.
A forlorn remnant of the era was recently discovered in Liverpool Bay some 12 miles off Hoylake.
The blockade runner “The Leila” was hurriedly launched in 1865 when it was believed the British government was going to prevent her leaving. Blockade runners were designed to sit low in the water to avoid detection. This feature meant that they were liable to flooding if any part of the ship was incomplete-and in their hurry not all hatches were sealed.
All but 12 of the 59 crew perished, and the tragedy was compounded when the Liverpool lifeboat racing to the rescue was overturned with the loss of a further 7 men.
Despite Britain’s late attempts to appear neutral, the United States pursued a claim against Britain for violations of the Neutrality Act. Dudley worked full-time on the compensation claim.
In 1872 at the International Tribunal held in Geneva .Britain was ordered to pay $15.5 million (over $200 billion in today’s terms)) compensation for her violation of the Neutrality Act. A lot of money, but little compared to the claim advocated by Charles Sumner of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He advocated compensation of $2 billion (in 1870 terms), and the cessation of Canada!
.After the end of the War there was a final Confederate connection. The former President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis lived here for a while, and whilst he was travelling extensively in Britain and Europe his sons attended school in Waterloo. He returned to the USA in November 1881
The “CSS Shenandoah” was involved in the final act of the War. It sailed into the Mersey on 6th November 1865.The captain surrendered to the Lord Mayor rather than face arrest by the Union. The first act of the American Civil War was the firing of Fawcett’s guns made in York Street, the last act was this surrender.
The Union, looking to heal the divisions of the War amnestied the people who had fought for the Confederacy.
All but James Dunwoody and his brother Bulloch lived the rest of his life in Liverpool. His nephew, Teddy Roosevelt, came to visit him here. Bulloch died on 7th January 1901 at 76 Canning Street. He is buried at Toxteth Cemetery, on Smithdown Road. On his memorial are the words:
"an American by birth, an Englishman by choice"
A little known link with events across the Atlantic-on 14 April1865 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, the son of a Liverpool actor.
Herman Melville stayed at the “Baltimore Clipper Inn” which stood a little further along Rumford Place He found a mother starving to death in a cellar, a dead baby at her breast, and two daughters starving by her side in nearby Lancelot’s Hey.
He attempted to alert the authorities but was told to mind his own business, the circumstance being so commonplace. He took them some food himself but later concluded that he was only prolonging the inevitable. When he looked in the cellar a few days later he found that the places where they had died had been quicklimed.
Return to Chapel Street and turn right towards the Church of Our Lady and St. Nicholas.JPG)
The Church is known by locals as the “Sailors’ Church”.The busy road beyond the churchyard wall runs along the former course of the River . Let’s take a little time to trace back what it was like when this was the riverfront. The first church in this area was St. Mary del Key, built about 1206, an Anglo-Saxon structure of wattle and daub. St.Nicholas’ was built on part of the site of the former church in 1361.
The remainder of that site was subsequently used as a boathouse and later as the “Boathouse Inn” The beach in front of the Inn was used for bull baiting.
Captain John Dawson of “The Mentor” lived near the Inn. He made a fortune through privateering.
The statue near the entrance to the Church is “Christ on an ass” by Brian Burgess.
On the corner of the Strand and Chapel St. is Simpson’s Fountain
Because of its position the Church was of strategic importance. In 1759, during the Seven Years War the French were planning to invade England.
A battery of fourteen cannon were installed in the churchyard to protect Liverpool from the depredations of the French privateer Thurot. Francois Thurot sailed from Dunkirk on 15th October 1759 in command of a squadron of five ships. He planned to attack Ireland as a diversion from the main attack in the South of England.. He was intercepted off the Isle of Man, and in a battle with H.M.S. Aeolus he was killed, and his ship was captured.
.The Church was almost completely rebuilt in 1774 but the tower was flimsy and when the bell was rung with a bit too much vigour one Sunday in February 1810 the tower collapsed killing twenty three girls from the Moorefield’s Charity School. The boys survived because they entered after the girls. A similar courtesy saved the minister Reverend L. Pughe who stood aside to let the children enter. Once again the tower was rebuilt.
During World War ll the nave was largely destroyed by bombs. It was rebuilt in 1952 .Inside the Church there is a memorial to local people who died in the War, and some details of the Church’s history.
The statue in the gardens showing a little boy holding a toy airplane .JPG)
is by local artist Tom Murphy. It shows an anxious mother cradling a baby whilst calling to her son to come down to the bomb shelter during an air raid. The boy was modelled on Tom’s eldest son, Ben, and the baby on his other son Tom. He wanted to demonstrate the bravery shown by ordinary people. Tom Murphy also created the statue of John Lennon at the Airport, and the statue of Bill Shankly at Anfield.
The memorial near the Strand is dedicated to those who died, and those who survived the Arctic Campaign 1941-1945
The building that flanks the Churchyard is Mersey Chambers has another Liver Bird on it .It is the head office of T J Harrison, a shipping line founded in 1830.
Cross the Church garden into Tower Gardens and note Ma Boyles Oyster Bar,.JPG)
named for Catherine Boyle who ran the pub until her death in the Sixties. . This is a friendly pub which specialises in seafood, but also serves a variety of other food including Scouse’, the local dish which generated the alternative name for a Liverpudlian, a Scouser. A good place for something to eat, a drink, or just a coffee. ‘ Note the mural on the wall of the pub. It depicts the links between the Old Hall Street area, Ireland, and the various Exchanges - Cotton, Corn etc., which were the commercial heart of Liverpool. Exchange floor dealing has long since given way to the power of computerised interchange, but the historic links are still there. ”.
Passing Ma Boyles go to the end of Tower Gardens and turn right down Water Street. .
On your right is the Tower Building..JPG)
The original Tower was built in 1235 by William de Ferrers and Sir John Stanley was given royal permission to further fortify it in 1406. The Stanley family have a 700 year plus relationship with Liverpool going back to the 12th century. In 1385 Sir John de Stanley married Isabel de Lathom and acquired lands some eight miles from the Tower. The second Lord Stanley fought for King Henry Vll at Bosworth Field and was made first Earl of Derby in gratitude.
The country estate was used for hunting and a large hunting lodge was built there in 1495 in honour of the King’s visit.
This lodge grew, over the centuries, into one of the country’s most magnificent stately homes, Knowsley Hall. The Hall is not open to the general public, for most of the year but some of the grounds are accessible in the form of Knowsley Safari Park.
Fans of ice hockey may be interested may be interested that the major competition of the sport, the Stanley Cup was named after the Lord Stanley who was Governor General of Canada in the Nineteenth Century.
In the 18th century The Tower was used as a debtor’s gaol. John Howard (after whom the Howard League for Penal Reform is named) visited the Gaol in 1787, and was appalled at conditions, with 7 dungeons measuring 6’x6’ with 3 prisoners in each. The cells above were only slightlylarger.
On Christmas Day 1787 he provided Christmas Dinner to all the inmates a great improvement on the normal bread and water diet, with each prisoner having to survive on a 1lb 3oz loaf per day.
He wrote his critical report on the state of prisons in Britain while staying in Duke St.
An example of the cruel penal code of the time was the public execution of Messrs Burns and Dowling in 1789- their crime? Burglary.
During the Napoleonic Wars the Tower held some 4000 French Prisoners of War. They developed a reputation for craftsmanship producing articles such as model ships and paintings for sale to the locals to supplement their diets.
One of them, Felix Durand struck up a relationship with a Miss P—— who lived in Dale St. She advised him on a way that he could escape and he and a number of companions duly did so.
Most were soon caught down by the docks but Durand headed out into the countryside and escaped capture. He found work on a farm near Warrington, pretending to be deaf and dumb. He might have continued indefinitely but one day 3 months after his escape some gentlemen and ladies were passing him conversing in French. Hearing his native tongue after so long, he couldn’t restrain himself and spoke to them in French. He was arrested and returned to the Tower. His diary carried this complaint:
"I may tell you that Mademoiselle P______ was here this morning; tears were in her lovely eyes and she seemed very glad to see me back, at which I somewhat wondered, especially if she esteemed me. I should have thought she would rather have relished my escaping altogether rather than being caught.”
He was released before the end of the War, on the intercession of Miss P—-’s father and he married her the following September.
The first “Derby” race was run at Hoylake on the Wirral.
The Tower was bought by the Corporation in 1819 and was demolished to make way for commercial developments. The current building, designed by W.A. Thomas was completed in 1910 ;its upper floors are all apartments.
Opposite the Tower is the former Bank of British West Africa.
Come back up Water Street and on your left is the Newz Bar and Grill, a trendy lounge bar favoured by celebrities housed in what was formerly New Zealand House. Pop in for a coffee, drink, or something to eat.
The restaurant is on a mezzanine above the bar, and is recommended. The bar itself claims to be the longest in Liverpool. The murals are by local artist David Jacques; his father is the best selling children’s author Brian Jacques, whose “Redwall” series of books have sold over 5 million worldwide.
Near to Newz Bar is the Grade l listed Oriel Chambers.JPG)
built in 1864. It aroused great controversy at the time, being described as “a great abortion” and
“an agglomeration of bubbles”. In modern times, Professor Quentin Hughes regards it as
“one of the most important buildings in the world because, both structurally and stylistically, it foreshadows by many years the work of the Modern Movement.”
The architect was Peter Ellis.Now cross to India Building..JPG)
The original building was built by the Holts in
1834, the owners of the Blue Funnel Line
. They called it “India” because the trade monopoly of the East India Company
was abolished that year.
The architect was Herbert J. Rowse who was influenced by his American travels as it has been compared with Fifth Avenue, New York
buildings. It was one of Liverpool’s largest office blocks and was designed to be
able to convert it to a warehouse if it couldn’t be let.
The India building now
houses a variety of offices but the arcade, with its beautiful Victorian ceiling.JPG)
and variety of small shops is open to the public.
The offices of Bahr Behrend and Co. shipping agents since1793 are in this building. Amongst the variety of goods the firm has arranged to ship are wild animals, which led to an unusual fatality. The firms’ cashier, a Mr. Wealthy had climbed onto the roof of the Princes Dock in an attempt to entice a tiger down from there. He was killed not by the tiger, but by a crate that fell upon him.
The Crowne Plaza hotel is on the Princes Dock site. Carry on up Water Street noting No.7, with its snarling tigers.JPG)
on its doors. The tigers were reputed to bring good luck, and it was traditional for Indian sailors visiting the port to come to rub the tigers’ teeth, to guarantee safe return to their homeland.
This site was the birthplace of Banastre Tarleton in 1754.He was portrayed as the villain in the Mel Gibson film “The Patriot”. It caused a furore locally particularly when it emerged that one of the scenes was based on real-life events, but the real atrocity was committed at Oradour in France by the Germans in 1944.
Tarleton captured some American Revolutionary War Colours from the Battle of Waxsaws and from troops in Westchester County. The latter flag made from gold silk bears 13 stars and is the oldest surviving American flag.It and the other three were returned to the U.S.A. when private bidders paid £9.4 million at Sotheby's in New York in 2007.
Cross to the Martins Building,.JPG)
now Barclays Bank with its massive bronze doors. The Bank held all of Britain’s gold reserves before they were evacuated to Canada in World War ll. It was chosen because its strongroom was cut into the bedrock of the city, with concrete walls 3’ thick ,reinforced with iron bars. The door weighs 9 tons.
On 22nd May 1940 a special train brought 260 tons of gold to Platform 8 at Lime St. valued then at £750 million. It was shipped to Ottawa later the same year
The smaller, square shaped entrance is flanked by friezes showing a figure,.JPG)
possibly Neptune with his hands on the heads of two African children.
The central banking hall ,lit from above, is enormous with its’ 40’ high ceiling and its’ ballustraded gallery. The hall is decorated with Liver Birds for the old Bank of Liverpool and grasshoppers for Martins’ Bank. Every detail of the building even down to the carpet on the floor of the banqueting hall on the top floor was designed by the architect Herbert J. Rowse and his staff. A critic in the “Architect’s Journal” said that this is “probably the best building of its kind in the country.”
Walk back down Water Street a little way and turn left into Rumford Street where you will find the entrance to the “Western Approaches Underground Wartime (marked with a huge “Top Secret” sign).JPG)
. This tells the story of perhaps the most important battle of World War ll, “The Battle of the Atlantic”. The exhibition is housed in the secret underground bunkers fromwhich the Battle was conducted.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of World War ll. Churchill described the battle as the dominating factor throughout the War. The sea-link across the Atlantic was vital for the supply of food, oil and weapons, as well as soldiers and airmen from all over the Empire, and eventually the USA.
If the Nazis had succeeded with their blockade, the War would have been lost. All of our oil, half of our food and most of our raw materials came across theAtlantic, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the Battle of Britain could not have flown without the fuel for their engines.
It is frightening how close we came to losing the battle, and the toll of lost lives. The death rate amongst Merchant Seamen was higher than in any other service, even higher than amongst Special Forces
In 1943 we were losing 600,000 tons of shipping to U-boats, together with their seamen, passengers and vital supplies. The Allied strategy was failing.
Then came one of the heroes of the Battle, Captain Johnny Walker. He, with his battle group, developed a method of attack which began to turn the tide. The first ship to detect a U-boat on sonar would hold its contact whilst another warship stealthily approached slowly to drop its depth charges. The method was dangerous, risking self-inflicted damage from the depth charges.
Walker also used his ships to ram surfaced U-boats. In one battle, nine U-boats were found on the surface replenishing. Walker gave the general chase signal including the order “Ignore my manoeuvres and act independently.” This signal was also hoisted in battle with the Spanish Armada. Seven of the U-boats were sunk and Walker’s battle group succeeded in sinking fifteen U-boats during his captaincy.
He suffered a fatal stroke brought on by his workload in 1944,at the age of 47.He was buried at sea. Captain Walker’s importance was marked by both sides. Admiral Doenitz, the U-boat supremo, signalled to his fleet “Walker’s dead.”
The Admiralty record states:
“Captain Frederic John Walker more than any other won the Battle of the Atlantic”
His memorial is at the Pier Head.Some idea of the scale of the Battle can be gleaned from counting the cost at the end:
- Over 30,000 merchant seamen, plus Royal and Allied Naval Airforce personnel, and passengers perished.
- Over 18,000 U-boat men died.
- Over 2,200 Merchant ships were sunk, almost all by U-boat attack.
- Nearly two out of every three U-boats were destroyed.
- In total 57000 lives were lost
Many of the merchant seamen were from Liverpool and its surrounding areas, and few families did not suffer some loss. One little known positive came from the Battle. Laurence Holt, the ship owner noticed that the death rates among survivors of an attack who managed to escape to lifeboats was far higher amongst the younger sailors; some as young as fourteen, than it was amongst older men.
He wondered why fit young men stood less chance of survival than their older colleagues. He reasoned that the older men’s experience of earlier challenges might have tempered them to endure extreme conditions. He spoke to George Kuhn, then headmaster of Gordonstoun School, and so was born the Outward Bound movement, which has now spread across the world.
The Western Approaches Museum is housed in the bunker from which the Battle of the Atlantic was directed. It has some fascinating exhibits including: Giant maps of the North Atlantic in the plotting room, which showed, almost like a game of chess, the move and counter-moves of the convoys and wolf-packs of boats.
A maze of original rooms covering 50,000 sq. feet: the Admiral’s Office, and Anderson bomb shelter, and a bombed-out room. The Decoding Room with its Enigma Microphone.
On May 9th 1941 Convoy OB318 was attacked by U-Boats. U-Boat 101 sank two merchant ships before a British corvette, the “HMS Aubrietia” damaged it forcing it to surface.
The crew struggled to the deck to see 2 Royal Navel vessels, the Aubrietia and the Bulldog bearing down on them. A boarding party led by Sub Lieutenant David Balme risked their lives to board the U-Boat not knowing if scuttling charges might have been set.
They salvaged a top-secret Enigma code machine, together with the settings and procedures used for the “Officier” Enigma doubly enciphered messages used by all U-Boats. From then on the Royal Navy was able to monitor U-Boat movements, a vital step in winning the Battle of the Atlantic. The Americans made a film version of this story as “U271”-” Strangely the Royal Naval heroics are attributed to the U.S. Navy-before America was even in the war!
The exhibition is open daily (excluding Friday and Sunday)
10.30 am - 4.30 pm from 1st March to 31st October (last admission one hour before closing).Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access Tel: 0151 227 2008 for information.
On leaving Western Approaches turn right and right again onto Chapel St. Moorfields Station is on the next road on your right