{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0809085046?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0809085046","authors":["Tom Chaffin"],"book_id":"9780809085040","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/sea-of-gray-9780809085040","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780809085040.jpg?v=59301f5b5c89db47","description":"Assembled from hundreds of original documents, including intimate shipboard journals kept by Shenandoah officers, Sea of Gray is a masterful narrative of men at sea The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamer Sea King left London on October 8, 1864, ostensibly bound for Bombay. The subterfuge was ended off the shores of Madeira, where the ship was outfitted for war. The newly christened CSS Shenandoah then commenced the last, most quixotic sea story of the Civil War: the 58,000-mile, around-the-world cruise of the Confederacy's second most successful commerce raider. Before its voyage was over, thirty-two Union merchant and whaling ships and their cargoes would be destroyed. But it was only after ship and crew embarked on the last leg of their journey that the excursion took its most fearful turn. Four months after the Civil War was over, the Shenandoah 's Captain Waddell finally learned he was, and had been, fighting without cause or state. In the eyes of the world, he had gone from being an enemy combatant to being a pirate—a hangable offense. Now fearing capture and mutiny, with supplies quickly dwindling, Waddell elected to camouflage the ship, circumnavigate the globe, and attempt to surrender on English soil. \"A superb account of how the Confederate raider Shenandoah brought the American Civil War to the farthest reaches of the world.\" -- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Mayflower and Sea of Glory","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780809085040","publication_date":"20070529","publisher":"Farrar Straus & Giroux","slug":"sea-of-gray","subtitle":"The Around-the-world Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah","title":"Sea of Gray"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Naval History","score":0.8056,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027340","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Warships & Submarines","score":0.7858,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRA006010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Maritime History","score":0.7838,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Naval History","score":0.8056,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027340","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Warships & Submarines","score":0.7858,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRA006010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Maritime History","score":0.7838,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027150","confidence_band":"high","label":"Naval History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027340","confidence_band":"high","label":"Warships & Submarines","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil War Era","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Naval History","score":0.8056,"slug":"naval-history"},{"label":"Warships & Submarines","score":0.7858,"slug":"warships-submarines"},{"label":"Maritime History","score":0.7838,"slug":"maritime-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Civil War naval campaigns and commerce raiding.","Readers drawn to document-based accounts of historic sea voyages."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Lincoln Paine"],"book_id":"9781101970355","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101970355.jpg?v=af69cc82af9a7705","score":0.7078,"title":"The Sea and Civilization","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101970355"},{"authors":["Nathaniel Philbrick"],"book_id":"9780142004838","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780142004838.jpg?v=2216d2e038e9ab67","score":0.7022,"title":"Sea of Glory","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780142004838"},{"authors":["Richard Snow"],"book_id":"9781982185442","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982185442.jpg?v=f9ffdf0d65f02fec","score":0.6962,"title":"Sailing the Graveyard Sea","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982185442"},{"authors":["Craig L. Symonds"],"book_id":"9780190243678","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780190243678.jpg?v=738255a759de91b4","score":0.6941,"title":"World War II at Sea","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780190243678"},{"authors":["Sally M. Walker"],"book_id":"9780763677558","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780763677558.jpg?v=d5e254097a0b6796","score":0.6913,"title":"Sinking the Sultana","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780763677558"},{"authors":["Brian McGinty"],"book_id":"9781631493010","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781631493010.jpg?v=ff4f1917d2ba66cb","score":0.6894,"title":"The Rest I Will Kill","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781631493010"},{"authors":["Brian Hicks","Schuyler Kropf"],"book_id":"9780345447722","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780345447722.jpg?v=ea70167ceda42de4","score":0.6892,"title":"Raising the Hunley","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780345447722"},{"authors":["Alan Huffman"],"book_id":"9780061470547","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780061470547.jpg?v=b638356111b2e47d","score":0.6891,"title":"Sultana","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780061470547"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:american history"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:civil war biography"],"label":"Biography","score":0.0744,"slug":"biography"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:us military history"],"label":"Military","score":0.035,"slug":"military"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:american civil war"],"label":"Civil","score":0.0282,"slug":"civil"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Civil War at sea, Confederate commerce raiding, Postwar peril and flight.","Themes: History, Biography, Military.","Reading lane: Naval History and Warships & Submarines."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in Civil War naval campaigns and commerce raiding.","Readers drawn to document-based accounts of historic sea voyages."],"themes":["Civil War at sea","Confederate commerce raiding","Postwar peril and flight"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":95,"goodreads_ratings_count":332,"goodreads_reviews_count":46,"quality_score":0.9039}}