Mobile River

The Spanish River is a brackish distributary river that forms part of the border between Baldwin and Mobile counties in Alabama. It is approximately 8 miles (13 km) long and is influenced by tides. It begins at the northernmost tip of Blakeley Island, where it diverges from the Mobile River, at 30.772°N 88.0222°W / 30.772; -88.0222. From there it flows along the eastern edge of Blakeley and Pinto islands, and discharges into Mobile Bay south of Pinto Island, at 30.665°N 88.021°W / 30.665; -88.021.It contains two significant shipwrecks that date to the American Civil War period. The Confederate ironclads, CSS Tuscaloosa and CSS Huntsville, were both scuttled in the river on April 12, 1865, to prevent their capture following the surrender of the city of Mobile.

USS Ida was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used as a towboat and dispatch boat by the Navy, and she provided her services to ships in the blockade squadrons. Ida was chartered by the Navy in New Orleans, Louisiana, 3 February 1863 and purchased 6 March.

The Battery Gladden Light was a lighthouse in Mobile Bay which marked a turn in the old ship channel. It was deactivated in 1913 and no longer exists.

Pinto Island is an island in the U.S. state of Alabama, within the city limits of Mobile. Located on the northwestern coast of Mobile Bay, it is bounded on the west by the Mobile River, on the south by Mobile Bay, on the east by the Spanish River, and on the north by Pinto Pass (now partially infilled with dredged material to form a land bridge) and Blakeley Island. It is dedicated to industrial uses, primarily shipbuilding. The BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards was originally the site of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, and most recently Atlantic Marine, which was acquired by BAE in 2010. The Alabama State Port Authority operates a terminal on the southern end of the island for the ThyssenKrupp steel plant upriver in Calvert. Austal USA owns part of this Island chain taking up most of the central part with a stocking shop channel on the west bank. In June 2018 BAE Systems Southeast completed a total shutdown of all facilities on Pinto Island, selling all their land and ship yards to Austal USA, giving Austal USA 51% control of Pinto Island land area from center to South shore. The island is approximately .75 miles (1.21 km) at its widest and 1.45 miles (2.33 km) at its longest with an average elevation of 10 feet (3.0 m). It, along with downtown and Blakeley Island, forms District Two of Mobile's city council districts.

The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States during the 20th century. It began operation in 1917, and expanded dramatically during World War II; with 30,000 workers, including numerous African Americans and women, it became the largest employer in the southern part of the state. During the defense buildup, which included other shipyards, Mobile became the second-largest city in the state, after Birmingham. Shipbuilding declined in the United States in the later 20th century, and ADDSCO closed its yard in the mid-1970s. It later re-opened. ADDSCO is now owned by BAE Systems, which purchased the yard from Atlantic Marine in May 2010.

The Miller–O'Donnell House was a historic residence in Mobile, Alabama. The two-story house was built in 1837 in the Gulf Coast Cottage style. It featured a masonry brick ground floor with a wood-frame main floor above. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 19, 1982, but has since been destroyed.

Saint Matthew's Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church building in Mobile, Alabama. It was built in the Mediterranean Revival style in 1913, shortly after its parish was founded. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1991, as a part of the Historic Roman Catholic Properties in Mobile Multiple Property Submission.

USS Drum (SS-228) is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, a type of fish. Drum is a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park. Drum was the twelfth of the Gato class but was the first completed and the first to enter combat in World War II. She is the oldest of her class still in existence.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, now known as Prince of Peace Catholic Church, is a historic Catholic church in Mobile, Alabama. It was designed by a local architect, James H. Hutchisson, in the Gothic Revival style. The current building was built in 1874 and dedicated on January 21, 1877. It replaced an earlier frame structure that had been completed in 1847 and burned prior to the erection of this building. This building was originally the parish church for Saint Vincent de Paul Parish. The neighboring Black parish, St. Peter Claver, was established in 1911. On December 25, 1970 these two parishes were combined to form Prince of Peace. A new St. Vincent de Paul Parish was then established in western Mobile County to serve the Tillmans Corner area. The original church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1992, as a part of the Historic Roman Catholic Properties in Mobile Multiple Property Submission.

Battleship Memorial Park is a military history park and museum on the western shore of Mobile Bay in Mobile, Alabama. Its notable aircraft and museum ships include the South Dakota-class battleship USS Alabama and Gato-class submarine USS Drum. Alabama and Drum are National Historic Landmarks; the park as a whole was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on October 28, 1977.

USS Alabama (BB-60) is a retired battleship. She was the fourth and final member of the South Dakota class of fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1940s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (406 mm) guns, but Congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews. After entering service, Alabama was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union. In 1943, she was transferred to the Pacific for operations against Japan; the first of these was the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign that began in November that year. While operating in the Pacific, she served primarily as an escort for the fast carrier task force to protect the aircraft carriers from surface and air attacks. She also frequently bombarded Japanese positions in support of amphibious assaults. She took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in June–September and the Philippines campaign in October–December. After a refit in early 1945, she returned to the fleet for operations during the Battle of Okinawa and the series of attacks on the Japanese mainland in July and August, including several bombardments of coastal industrial targets. Alabama assisted in Operation Magic Carpet after the war, carrying some 700 men home from the former war zone. She was decommissioned in 1947 and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet, where she remained until 1962 when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. A campaign to save the ship from the breakers' yard succeeded in raising the necessary funds, and Alabama was preserved as a museum ship in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The Battle of Fort Charlotte, also known as the siege of Fort Charlotte, was a two-week siege conducted by Spanish general Bernardo de Gálvez against the British fortifications guarding the port of Mobile, (which was then in the British province of West Florida, and now in Alabama) during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1779-1783. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans, Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola. Gálvez's army sailed from New Orleans aboard a small fleet of transports on January 28, 1780. On February 25, the Spaniards landed near Fort Charlotte. The outnumbered British garrison resisted stubbornly until Spanish bombardment breached the walls. The garrison commander, Captain Elias Durnford, had waited in vain for relief from Pensacola, but was forced to surrender. Their capitulation secured the western shore of Mobile Bay and opened the way for Spanish operations against Pensacola.