Blockade Runner Banshee

From Wikipedia.

Built in Liverpool, England, and launched in 1862, built specifically for the blockade-running trade, 210 feet long with a speed of 11.5 knots and 1200 tons. Steel-hulled and its maiden voyage across the Atlantic was a "first" for a steel-hulled ship.

In the next seven months, it made seven round trip runs through the blockade from either Bermuda or the Bahamas to Wilmington, NC. Future New York shipping magnate F.W.J. Hurst was second in command on all of those voyages.

Captured en route to Wilmington on November 21, 1863 by the USS Grand Gulf and Army transport Fulton.

The Navy bought the ship and converted it into a gunboat mounting one 100-pdr gun and two 30-pdr. guns. Commissioned June 1864 and assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Took part in the first attack on Fort Fisher in December 1864 and later assigned to the Potomac Flotilla in mid-January. Decommissioned and sold November 1865.

Began commercial service and renamed the T.L. Smallwoord (or J.L. Smallwoood). Sold to British interests in 1868, renamed and continued service into the 1890s.

--Old B-Runner