Last Flag Down

The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship

By: John Baldwin, Ron Powers

Narrated by: Ron McLarty

As the Confederacy felt itself slipping beneath the Union juggernaut in late 1864, the South launched a desperate counteroffensive to shatter the U.S. economy and force a standoff. Its secret weapon? A state-of-the-art raiding ship whose mission was to prowl the world’s oceans and sink the U.S. merchant fleet. The raider’s name was Shenandoah, and her executive officer was Conway Whittle, a twenty-four-year-old warrior who might have stepped from the pages of Arthurian legend. Whittle would share command with a dark and brooding veteran of the seas, Capt. James Waddell, and together with a crew of strays, misfits, and strangers, they would spend nearly a year sailing two-thirds of the way around the globe, destroying dozens of Union ships and taking more than a thousand prisoners, all while continually dodging the enemy.Then, in August of 1865, a British ship revealed the shocking truth to the men of Shenandoah: The war had been over for months, and they were now being hunted as pirates. What ensued was an incredible 15,000-mile journey to the one place the crew hoped to find sanctuary, only to discover that their fate would depend on how they answered a single question. Wondrously evocative and filled with drama and poignancy, Last Flag Down is a riveting story of courage, nobility, and rare comradeship forged in the quest to achieve the impossible.

inspiring ending

Would you try another book from John Baldwin, and Ron Powers and/or Ron McLarty?

McLarty is an ace among the narrators that I commonly listen to, his read on Empire Falls was superb

Any additional comments?

Overall, the book was OK, but the final part of the book was exceptional. It was toward the end of the book that the true traits of the main characters seemed to resonate the loudest. Book did motivate me to read more on this vessel and the sailors that manned it.