Original Civil War British Made Naval Protractor in Wooden Case owned by Irvine S. Bulloch of the Confederate Navy Original Items

Original Item: One of a Kind. This is a high quality item, a Ship’s Protractor, Maker marked T.B. Winter, Newcastle upon Tyne on the top center rail. It is comes in its original issue felt-line wood case with full maker’s label on the underside of the lid. THe case measures approximately 9″ x 9″. On the under side of the brass instrument is engraved:-

Irvine S. Bulloch
1864

Irvine Stephen Bulloch was born in Roswell, Georgia on June 25th 1842. As a junior Officer in the Confederate States Navy he served on the CSS ALABAMA and was present at her final destruction. As it happens, he was to be an Uncle of the later President Theodore Roosevelt who insisted that his Uncle Irvine had fired the last two shots from the stricken warship before she foundered.

Stuck in England, Irvine Bulloch left Liverpool to join the CSS SHENANDOAH as Sailing Master in October 1864. As developed in the Confederate Navy Department and by its agents in Europe, the Shenandoah was tasked to strike at the Union’s economy and “seek out and utterly destroy” commerce in areas yet undisturbed. Commander James I. Waddell, the captain of the ship, began seeking enemy merchant ships on the Indian Ocean route between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, and in the Pacific whaling fleet. En route to the Cape, the Confederates captured six prizes. Five were burned or scuttled, once the crew and passengers had been removed. The sixth was bonded and used to transport the prisoners to Bahia, Brazil, where they were released.

The ship then sailed through the Indian ocean, and on January 25 1865 stopped in Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria, which would later become part of Australia. There they were refit, and took on additional crew, and after leaving continued to raid shipping in the Pacific. As they neared the Pacific coast of the United States, one of their prizes informed them that the War had ended, with the CSA losing. Captain Waddell was not convinced, but after meeting the Liverpool barque Barracouta, he had to accept that the war had in fact been lost. What followed was a voyage half-way around the globe while being chased by the Union Navy. The CSS Shenandoah eventually arrived back in Mersey, off Liverpool, on November 5 1865. They surrendered to the British Government the next day.

As for Bulloch, upon his arrival he found that the Confederate Navy had, in his absence, promoted him to Lieutenant, but of course by this time there was no Confederate Navy in which to serve. He stayed in Liverpool becoming a Cotton Merchant and died on July 14th 1898 just a few years short of his nephew becoming President of the United States. In lovely condition, beautifully preserved in it’s original case and ready to display.