Blockade Runner Annie-- Part 1

This ship had quite an active October 1864, when it was almost captured running into Wilmington and captured at the end of the month on its way out of that port.  This was the ship the USS Aster was chasing when it ran aground and was lost, that the USS Berberry was trying to pull off when it to ran aground before being rescued by the USS Niphon.  I have been writing about these ships the last several weeks.

On October 31, 1864, the Annie was captured by the USS Niphon and Wilderness.

The following pilot shipped aboard the Annie several times through the blockade at Wilmington.

From James William Craig, A Veteran Cape Fear River Pilot."

After successfully piloting several runners into and out of Wilmington, he was ordered to go to Nassau in the blockade runner Fanny, (former Orion), and report to Captain Watters in the blockade runner Annie.

"I remember we left [Wilmington] in the Fanny on a Saturday night and arrived in Nassau before daylight of Tuesday morning, where I found the Annie loaded and ready for sea and waiting for me.  We accordingly left about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and arrived without incident inside the Cape Fear Bar on the Friday night following."

More Adventures in the Annie Next.  --Old B-Runner

USS Berberry-- Part 5: Continued Operations in North Carolina Waters

Repairs were finished by November 1864 and the Berberry departed Norfolk on the 23rd and headed back to the waters off New Inlet, arriving ion the 26th.  That night her guns persuaded a blockade runner to give up its attempt to escape to sea.

Early in December, illness forced Ensign Milton Griffith (who had commanded the Berberry ever since commissioning) to request relief and Ensign Robert W. Browntree took command of the tug on December 4.    On the 10th, a bad storm forced the Berberry to Beaufort, N.C. for repairs.

Mid-month, the ship was in the Sounds of N.C. where she served the rest of the year.

On January 3, 1865, Acting Ensign Peter C. Asserson took command and returned to blockade duty off New Inlet.   She operated there until February 26.  She then returned to Beaufort and operated in the sounds until the collapse of the Confederacy.

On 29 May, it left N.C. waters and returned to Hampton Roads the following day. Then on to New York where she was decommissioned at New York Navy Yard on June 10 and sold at public auction two days later.

She was redocumented as the tug Rescue and  served through the turn of the century before being purchase by a foreign interest in 1902.

Quite a Busy Service.  --Old B-Runner

USS Berberry-- Part 4: The USS Niphon Rescues the Stricken Berberry

As she moved away from the stricken Aster, the Berberry ran across the hawser that had been used in the attempt to draw the ship off the shoals and it got all tangled in the propellers.  The Berberry's commander then had his men raise all the awnings, blankets and other large pieces of cloth as jury-rigged  "sails to drift the Berberry off shore."  meanwhile, he burned Costan signal lights to call for help.

When the USS Niphon saw the lights it had been preparing to launch boats to board the stranded blockade runner Annie that the Aster had been chasing.  They immediately abandoned that project and  and headed for the Berberry to lend aid.

About this time, the Aster burst into flame, illuminating both Union ships and Confederate batteries opened fire on them.  Despite this, the Niphon was able to pull the Berberry off.  The berberry was leaking so badly, however, that she had to go to Norfolk for repairs.

--Old B-Runner

USS Berberry-- Part 3: Aiding the Stranded USS Aster

Shortly after midnight on October 8, 1864, while the Berberry was on station northeast of the Mound Light (at Fort Fisher's Mound Battery), observers reported an approaching boat.  The Berberry hailed the stranger and ordered her alongside.  She proved to be from the USS Aster, another tug on blockade duty, that had run aground on the Carolina Shoals while chasing a blockade runner attempting to enter New Inlet.

Assistance was requested.

The Berberry quickly steamed to the Aster, near New Inlet.  She took a hawser from the Aster and attempted to pull her free.  However, the hawser parted and the Aster was still stuck.  Several more attempts were made before the falling tide halted the effort.

The Berberry then attempted to go alongside the Aster to take off her crew and it took some twenty minutes of difficult maneuvering  to work into a suitable position.  She took all on board except the captain, executive officer and pilot who remained on board  to destroy the vessel if it looked like it was going to fall into Confederate hands.

During this operation, the Berberry thumped "...heavily on the bottom."

And Then?  --Old B-Runner

USS Berberry-- Part 2: Chasing That Runner

The USS Berberry and USS Aster, being tugs and shallower draft, often were placed the closest to shore in order to detect and capture blockade runner.

At 21:45 the following , a lookout on the Berberry sighted a long, low, two-stacked steamer standing out from New Inlet.  Giving chase, Acting Ensign Milton Griffith reported that the blockade runner " "...stood for us withing 400 yards; then to the southward."  The Berberry attempted to get in between her and the bar.

While this was going on, the Berberry opened fore on her and sent up "...rockets in the direction in which she was steering."

Despite the fact that fellow blockaders Niphon and Daylight joined in the chase, the runner's superior speed enabled her  to steam out of sight of her pursuers, and apparently made her way out to open sea.

You Wins Some and Loses Some.  --Old B-Runner

USS Berberry-- Part 1: Part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron Off Fort Fisher

From Wikipedia.

The USS Berberry, like the USS Aster, was a steam powered tugboat acquired by the Union Navy which purchased the ship 13 August 1864,  Its original name was Columbia, but was renamed USS Berberry and placed in commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 12 September 1864.

(99 feet long, 20 foot beam, 35 crew members, Armament:  two 12-pdr. smoothbore and two 24-pdr. smoothbore guns.)

Departed Philadelphia September 29 and reached Beaufort, N.C., on October for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and took up station off New Inlet, North Carolina.

At 3:00 in the morning October 4, while cruising off the Mound Light (in Fort Fisher), the Berberry discovered a steamer making for New Inlet and gave chase, firing two shots but it escaped into New Inlet.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Niphon's Involvement in the Loss of the USS Aster

From Wikipedia.

The USS Niphon was a ship to be feared by blockade runners.  Click on the label USS Niphon below to see how much she was involved in captures.  It is an impressive list.

The USS Aster ran aground and was lost chasing the blockade runner Annie on October 7.  The Niphon came to her aid.  The Niphon then assisted in the capture of the Annie when she ran out od Wilmington on October 31.

On October 1, 1864, the Niphon ran the blockade runner Condor aground, now a N.C. State Dive Spot, and this shipwreck was where famed Congederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow drowned.

Then on October 7 the Niphon rescued the crew of the USS Aster under the guns of Fort Fisher.  It was able to tow the USS Berberry after it had become disabled trying to tow the Aster off the shoals.

On the last day of October, the Niphon and USS Wilderness captured the Annie on her way out.

A Busy October.  --Old B-Runner

USS Aster, Steam Tugboat Lost Off New Inlet

Earlier this month, I wrote about the loss of the USS Aster to the Union blockading squadron off Wilmington, North Carolina on October 8, 1864.

From Wikipedia.

Originally the tugboat Alice and acquired by the U.S. Navy 25 July 1864. at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and placed in commission 12 August 1864.    It was ordered to duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington.  She joined that squadron but was soon in Norfolk, Virginia for repairs.

She arrived back off New Inlet on  7 October and almost immediately spied a blockade runner making for the entrance and gave chase to cut it off.  The blockade runner turned out to be the Anne, from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Just as the Aster was about to catch up with the Annie, it grounded on the Carolina Shoals.  Every effort was made to refloat the ship, but failed.  The USS Berberry came to her aide but was also unsuccessful.

The Aster's crew was transferred to the Berberry and the tug put to the torch causing it to blow up.

The Annie managed to slip into the Cape Fear River and make her way to Wilmington, but was captured on her way out on October 31.

--Old B-Runner

NC Timeline, October 1864-- Part 1: Loss of the Blockade Runner Condor and Rose O'Neal Greenhow

From the N.C. Civil War Sesquicentennial Timeline site.

OCTOBER 1--  Blockade runner Condor, inbound from Nova Scotia, ran aground off Fort Fisher with two prominent people aboard, James B. Holcumb (Confederate Commissioner to Great Britain, and Rose O'Neal Greenhow (Confederate spy).  She drowned in the surf when her boat overturned.

She is buried in Wilmington, with her death being listed as September 30.

The hulk of the Condor was later used as a target for Confederate gunners in the fort.

OCTOBER 8--  Union tug Aster ran aground and was lost off Carolina Shoals (Cape Fear River) while chasing a blockade runner.  The tug USS Berberry tried unsuccessfully to pull the Aster off.

(The Civil War Naval Chronology lists this as happening September 7, 1864.)

OCTOBER 10--  Capture of British steamer Bat.

OCTOBER  11-13--  Scout from Camp Palmer to Gum Swamp.

--Old B-R'er

USS Aster Destroyed Off New Inlet

SEPTEMBER 7, 1864:  The USS Aster chased the blockade-runner Annie ashore at New Inlet, North Carolina, under the guns of Fort Fisher, but the 285-ton wooden steamer ran aground herself and was destroyed to prevent capture.

The USS Niphon rescued the crew of the Aster and, under a hail of fire from the fort, towed out the USS Berberry, which had become disabled trying to pull the Annie off the shoal.

--Old B-Runner