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The Alabama Class Pirates even worked the waters off Rhode Island. On May 17, 1818, Vigilant seized the brig Belle Corunnes off Block Island. While cutters worked to clear the Chesapeake and waters from New England to Florida, major actions were taking place between pirates and two of the newest cutters, the sister ships Alabama and Louisiana. Known as the Alabama-class, these two vessels were built by Christian Bergh in New York. They were topsail schooners that displaced 56 tons, 52 feet in length, nearly 20 feet in breadth, with five feet, nine inches in depth of hold. Costing $4,500 each, they were armed with one pivot gun, and nine-, 12-, and 18-pounder guns. Though both were temporarily stationed at New Orleans, Alabama came to be permanently homeported at Mobile. These vessels were fast and well-armed, designed to counter the small, quick corsairs of the pirates and suppress the slave trade. On August 31, 1819, Jean LaFarge, who commanded the pirate ship Bravo, attacked the cutters Louisiana and Alabama off the southern coast of Florida. The action was furious, but of short duration, and was terminated when the cuttermen boarded the enemy vessel and carried its decks in a hand-to-hand struggle. Pursuing the Pirates Soon it became too hazardous for the pirates to base themselves along the Gulf Coast, as cutters' shallow drafts allowed them to pursue the pirates through the numerous bayous and attack them wherever they were found. The pirates, therefore, established themselves on Bretons Island, La. On April 19, 1820, Alabama and Louisiana discovered the new base. The cuttermen attacked and drove the pirates off, destroying everything on the island that could make it habitable. The destruction of this hideout practically ended pirate bases on U.S. territory. In July and August 1820, Louisiana cruised off the British colony of Belize and captured nine pirate vessels. Two years later, in November 1822, the cutter cooperated with USS Peacock and HMS Speedwell, a schooner in the Royal Navy, off Cuba. During this cruise, she was credited with capturing five pirate vessels. A few years later, a new Louisiana, the original having been decommissioned and sold in 1824, cruised the Gulf of Mexico in search of pirates. The Colombian privateer turned pirate Bolivar was preying on ships at the mouth of the Mississippi River. On May 7, 1827, Louisiana over- took Bolivar in the Southwest Pass and brought her to the Admiralty Court of New Orleans. From 1825 to 1829, the cutter Marion sailed out of Charleston and Savannah in search of pirates. On June 24, 1826, she captured the sloop Brilliant off the Bahamas. 10 Proceedings Spring 2012 www.uscg.mil/proceedings