The article was published in Polish. Below is an English translation of its opening. Wersja polska
In the spring of 1864, Confederate forces made a bold attempt to drive the Federals from a number of footholds they had seized on the North Carolina coast two years earlier. The ironclad ram CSS Albemarle played a key role in that struggle.
Thanks to detailed information in reports, logbooks and the correspondence of officers on both sides, it is possible to attempt a reconstruction of the two engagements in which she took part, to sketch their wider background, and to show what the United States Navy learned about its new opponent and how it used that knowledge.
“Never before was a vessel of war constructed under such adverse circumstances…” These words of Albemarle’s builder, Gilbert Elliott, sum up many months of laboriously overcoming the lack of proper shipbuilding facilities, materials and skilled labour, as well as the ignorance of superiors. The crowning achievement of those efforts was the commissioning of a ship that almost single-handedly changed the balance of power off North Carolina, tying down considerable US Navy forces for half a year.
