From Wikipedia.
Back on my April 23rd Naval Happenings entry, I mentioned the CSS Georgia capturing a ship at sea. Previous to that, the only CSS Georgia I'd ever heard of was the ironclad whose engines were so weak, it was tied up at Fort Jackson, guarding Savannah and spent the whole war there as a floating ironclad battery.
It definitely could never have gone out to sea and captured that ship. And the fact that it was at sea meant most likely that the ship was a cruiser. It was.
The CSS Georgia was a screw steamer commissioned April 9, 1863 and captured by the USS Niagara August 15, 1864. It was 212 feet long, weighed 600 tons and was armed with 5 cannons.
It had been launched in 1862 as the fast merchant ship Japan and was secretly purchased by the Confederate Navy at Dumbarton, Scotland in March 1863. On April 1st, it departed Greenock, supposedly heading for Singapore (to fool Union spies) but actually to rendezvous with the steamer Alar off the French coast where it took on its guns April 9th, the Confederate flag hoisted and commissioned as the CSS Georgia.
Its commander was William Lewis Maury and he had orders to raid Union shipping on the high seas. I was unable to find out anything about William Maury, but think he very likely was related to Confederate commissioner William Fontaine Maury.
More to Come. --Old B-Runner
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