USS Columbia-- Part 3: The Battle Over the Columbia

Despite the crew's best efforts to free the iron-hulled ship, waves pushed her broadside to the shoreline and flooded her boilers.  Flares were fired into the night-time sky, hoping to alert nearby blockaders to come to her aide.

When that failed Lt. Couthouy sent a boat to alert the commander of the squadron, some  20 miles south.  The boat made little headway in the rough seas and it was late the next day when it reached the nearest ship, the USS Cambridge which got underway immediately.

When she arrived, the USS Penobscot was already there and rescue operations underway  They managed to get crew men off the wreck, but a gale on January 15 hampered efforts.

The next morning, Confederate troops arrived and tried to claim the ship.  Confederate sentinels on the beach had probably spotted the wreck on the 15th and alerted the Wilmington command  Soldiers and artillery arrived and took up positions behind the sand dunes at Masonboro Inlet.  They engaged the cannons of the Cambridge and Penobscot.

--Old B-Runner