The crew set sail for the Azores to which the vessel changed hands to Captain Raphael Semmes and was formally armed, stocked with coal and took on food and supplies for the voyage ahead. Hull 290 was built under the guise of a merchantman - the 'Enrica' - at the shipyard of John Laird Songs & Company of Liverpool and put to water with a civilian crew on July 9th, 1862 so as to not raise notice.

Payment for its construction was $250,000. Funding was made possible through a local cotton broker - Fraser, Trenholm Company of Liverpool and, after securing the cruiser 'Oreto' (to become the CSS Florida), Bulloch moved on a new design known under its hull number of '290'. Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch was a Confederate agent based in England and guided to raise naval vessels for the burgeoning Confederate fleet. Though now that Mass is gone from the shop AL might not be a bad choice if you're in the market for a T8 USN BB.When war broke out between the States on April 12th, 1861, the South moved to send representatives throughout Europe in the hopes of procuring all manner of war-making goods. Massa pays for this by having even worse main gun accuracy than Alabama (though it's still very usable), and I think less torp protection? But that's about it, there's a reason WG has pulled it.ĪL is essentially stuck in the middle between the NC and the MA, when released she was a fun option but Mass is the superior ship now. Mass also has a special heal, it doesn't heal as much as the other USN BBs, but it reloads much much faster, making it available more often which is useful in brawls. This makes her secondary battery one of the best in the game, and it's repeated on Georgia and Ohio. MA has improved secondaries over the rest of the US BBs, better range, better ROF (I think) and most importantly massively improved accuracy. Then WG decided that AL wasn't a good enough brawler so they came up with MA.

Basically a bit more of a close range ship compared to NC.

Alabama is very similar to North Carolina, the biggest difference being that she trades gun accuracy for much improved handling and torpedo protection.

World of warships alabama