The USS Gem of the Sea and the Blockade of Charlotte Harbor

Starting in 1863, the Union Navy began attempting to suppress the shipment of cattle and hogs from central Florida organized a blockade of Charlotte Harbor.    One of the ships assembled to do this was the USS Gem of the Sea, a wooden bark sailing ship commissioned October 5, 1861,  at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

From December  24 to 30, 1863,  small boats from the Gem of the Sea encountered signal fires and sporadic gunfire from local Southern sympathizers.  The USS Rosalie, sloop, arrived to provide  cover at a shelling position 200 yards from the Myakka's east shore.

--Old B-Runner