USS Nansemond-- Part 1: A Fast Ship

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday, I wrote about this Union ship chasing the blockade-runner Venus ashore and later burning it. So, I looked it up to find out more about the ship.

The Nansemond was a sidewheel steamer built in 1862 in Williamsburg, New York as the James F. Freeborn, but purchased by the U.S. Navy on 18 August 1863, and commissioned in Baltimore 19 August under Lt. Roswell H. Lamson.

It was a fast ship, able to go 15 knots, 146 feet long with a 63-man crew and mounting one 30-pdr. Parrot rifle and two 24-pdr. guns.

It joined the North Atlantic Blockading Fleet 24 August 1863 and chased the Douro ashore near New Inlet 11 October and destroyed the blockade-runner with a cargo of cotton, turpentine, tobacco and rosin. The Douro, as I previously mentioned earlier this month, had been captured earlier by the USS Quaker City and had been condemned and sold and found itself back in the blockade running business.

Two Times Not the Charm. --Old B-Runner