Last Call

              In a separate action the Supreme Court upheld a ruling giving United States ownership of the ship's bell recovered in 1935 from a Confederate raider, the Alabama, sunk off the French coast in 1864.

            The Alabama had sunk at least 62 Union ships before it was attacked and destroyed by the vessel Kearsarge off Cherbourg.

            The bell was recovered in 1936 by a British diver from the Isle of  Guernsey, who sold it to a local bar in exchange for drinking privileges. The foot-high bell was used to sound the last call for drinks.

            The bar was destroyed by bombing during World War II, but the bell was later recovered from the rubble and turned up on the antiques market.

            A New Jersey antique dealer, Richard Steinmetz, said he paid $14,000 for it in Hastings, England, in 1979. The United States government laid claim to it three years ago.

                        The lower courts, and now the Supreme Court, agreed that the US government retains title to all Confederate property. 
-San Francisco Chronicle, 6/2013