Lightships to Ironclads

From Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

"At least two ironclad floating batteries were converted from existing lightships.  The Frying Pan Shoals lightship was being converted to a floating battery in the rear of Fort Caswell, near the Western Bar Inlet of the Cape Fear River, when a party from the Union ship Mount Vernon burned it in late december 1861.

The Arctic was converted in 1863 and later used as a receiving ship for the Wilmington Station.  In March 1863 and January 1865 the Union navy reported Confederate ironclad sightings but there is no documentation to confirm either account."

I have heard of the CSS Arctic, but there is not much information on the ship.  I would imagine it was destroyed when Wilmington fell.

Old B-Runner