Abner Read, USN-- Part 2: Service Aboard Many Ships

Continued from November 5.

Abner Read was born in Urbana, Ohio, and studied at Ohio University, but left before graduation to take a warrant as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, effective 2 March 1839.  He was assigned to the schooner USS Enterprise in South American waters.  Next, he was on the ship of the line USS Delaware (this ship was burned at Norfolk Navy Yard on April 20, 1861, to prevent capture by Confederates).

After Navy School in Philadelphia, he spent time on the USS Dolphin searching for slavers off the coast of Africa through the summer of 1847.

Then he was on the store ship USS Fredonia at the end of the Mexican War and then to California during the gold rush.  Other duties were on the USS Union, USS Saranac, USS Falmouth and USS Supply.

--Old B-Runner

Gustavus H. Scott-- Part 2: Civil War Service

When the Civil War began, although born in Virginia, he refused to resign his commission and commanded the USS Keystone State and searched for the Confederate raider CSS Sumter.  This was his first command.  Later he joined the West Indies Squadron searching for blockade-runners.

Then he commanded the new gunboat, USS Maratanza and took part in McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.  He captured the CSS Teaser 4 July 1862.

From there he joined the blockade off Wilmington, N.C., 25 September 1862 and at one point fired on Fort Caswell.

Promoted to captain, he took command of the USS DeSoto in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.  From there,he received command of the USS Canandaigua (the ship that rescued the 150-man crew of the USS Housatonic after it was sunk by the submarine Hunley on Feb. 17, 1864).

He served with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until the end of the war and then commanded the USS Saranac of the Pacific Squadron in its search for the Shenandoah.

--Old B-R'er

USS Saranac's Commander, Gustavus H. Scott-- Part 1: Second Seminole War

From Wikipedia.

I read that Gustavus H. Scott commanded the USS Saranac during its search for the CSS Shenandoah.  It turns out he led a long career in the Navy.

1812-1882.

US Navy.  Served in the Second Seminole War and the Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of rear admiral and was once the commander of the North Atlantic squadron.

Born in Virginia 13 June 1812.  Midshipman in 1828 and served on the USS Guerriere in the Pacific Squadron.  he was off Charleston, S.C. during the Nullification Crisis of 1832.  On the USS Vandalia 1835-1836.during the Second Seminole War.

First lieutenant on USS St. Lawrence of the Pacific Squadron 1852-1853.  On the USS Michigan in the Great Lakes 1855-1857 and Lighthouse Inspector 1858-1860.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Suwanee, the Second Ship Looking for the Shenandoah-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

i have already written about the USS Saranac, the ship that sent to look for the CSS Shenandoah and may or may not have almost caught the raider in the Atlantic Ocean in the fall of 1865.  The other ship detailed to look for her was the USS Suwanee.

The Suwanee was a third-rate gunboat commissioned late in the war which spent several weeks looking for the CSS Shenandoah.  Like the Saranac, the ship was wrecked off British Columbia, but seven years before in 1868.

It was a double-ender, iron-hulled, sidewheeler built for the U.S. Navy by Reaney, Son & Archbold of Chester, Pennsylvania.  It was 255 feet long and 35-foot beam with a crew of 159.  It mounted ten guns: two 100-pdr. Parrott rifles, four 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, two 24-pdr. howitzers and rwo 20-pdr Dahlgren rifles.

--Old B-Runner5

Was the USS Saranac That Ship That Scared the Shenandoah?

In the last post I mentioned that the Shenandoah had a scare from the USS Saranac as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean for England.  I know that the Saranac was one of the ship's specifically searching for the Shenandoah.  However, I found no mention that this ship had continued into the Atlantic Ocean in its pursuit.

The Shenandoah had disarmed itself and surrendering to an American ship wasn't a good idea because they had captured and destroyed Union ships after the war was over, even though they didn't know it at the time.  They were considered pirates and it is never a good thing to be captured if you are a pirate.

I wonder if anyone knows for sure whether the stranger ship was the Saranac?

--Old B-R'er

150 Years Ago: The CSS Shenandoah Surrenders to the English Navy-- Part 1

NOVEMBER 6, 1865:  The CSS Shenandoah, Lt. Waddell, sailed up the Mersey River into Liverpool, 123 days and 23,000 miles from the Aleutians.  This had been a non-stop cruise made primarily under sail.  The raider resorted to steam only on one occasion at night in the mid-South Atlantic to evade the USS Saranac.

The following morning the boiler fires were banked and Waddell proceeded under sail and arrived at his destination without sighting another vessel.  The Shenandoah entered Liverpool harbor with the Confederate flag flying and became the only ship to circumnavigate the globe in the Confederate Navy.

Waddell reported his arrival to the British Foreign Ministry and was officially informed that the war was over.  he thereupon lowered the last official; Confederate flag and turned his ship, himself and crew over to Captain J.G. Paynter, RN, commanding the HMS Donegal.

After a few days confinement to the ship, Waddell and his crew were set at liberty by the English government.

--Old B-Runner

Gustavus Halls Scott, Commander of the USS Saranac

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday and earlier in the week, I mentioned that the USS Saranac was commanded by Captain Gustavus H. Scott in its search for the CSS Shenandoah.  Lt. James Waddell of the CSS Shenandoah incorrectly thought the mysterious ship that his ship encountered while returning to England to surrender was the USS Saranac commanded by Capt. Walke.  I have come across nothing saying that the Saranac went to the Atlantic Ocean while searching for the Shenandoah.

Gustavus Halls Scott (1812-1882).  Served in the Second Seminole War and the Civil War and eventually rose the rank of rear admiral and once, after the war, commanded the North Atlantic Squadron.

He was born in Virginia 13 June 1812.

--Old B-Runner

The Union's Pacific Squadron

From the Civil War Forum.

Even though the U.S. West Coast was far from the major fighting, there was still the possibility of Confederate commerce raiders attacking or attack from Southern sympathizers from Canada.  A small fleet maintained guard along the Pacific coast.

The Pacific Squadron 1861-1865: Six sloops-of war:

USS Lancaster--  flagship
USS Saranac
USS Wyoming
USS Narragansett
USS Cyane

Also, at end of the war, the USS Suwanee.

The Saranac was commanded at one time by Gustavus H. Scott.

--Old B-Runner

USS Saranac-- Part 4: Looking for the Shenandoah

From the Official Records Navy.  report of Acting Rear Admiral Pearson, Commanding the Pacific Squadron, August 4, 1865, to Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles.

He had sent the USS Saranac, Captain G. H. Scott, which had been at Acapulco, Mexico, to protect American interests during an uprising against the French, had been ordered to go in pursuit of the CSS Shenandoah, then cruising in the Pacific.

Pearson then ordered the USS Suwanee to also join the search for the Confederate cruiser.

That made two ships dedicated to the search.  Waddell knew Union ships were looking for him and then there was always the possibility that he might be hanged as a pirate if caught.

--Old B-Runner

USS Saranac-- Part 3: Beware Ripple Rock

The ship was decommissioned and recommissioned several times before being recommissioned in 1857.  In the Civil War, it did duty by California and searched for the CSS Shenandoah at the end of the war.

After the war, it operated off the California coast.

It was wrecked at 8:40 a.m. on June 18, 1875, on the submerged Ripple Rock in the Seymour Narrows of the Discovery Passage.  This rock is just nine feet below the water at low tide (the Saranac drew 17 feet).  Since the Saranac's wreck, at least 20 large ships and 100 smaller ones have fallen victim to it from 1875 to 1958.

This is on the Campbell River.  The Saranac had been collecting natural curiosities for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition when it ran into the rock.  The bow of the ship was then run into Vancouver Island's shore and a hawser tied to a tree on it, but within an hour, the ship had sunk completely from sight.

Lt. Cmdr Sanders, the pilot and 13 men made their way on foot to Victoria.

--Old B-Runner

USS Saranac-- Part 2: First Commander Was Josiah Tattnall

The ship was 215 feet long,  had a 37.4-foot beam and 17 foot draft, crew of 14  (I think this number is too low) and mounted eleven 8-inch guns.  It was named for the Saranac River ib New York which empties into Lake Champlain.  It is also the name of a War of 1812 ship.

Other USS Saranacs:

USS Saranac.  Minelayer built 1899, acquired by U>S> Navy in 1917 and decommissioned 1919.

USCGC Saranac, #52.  Launched 1930 and leased to the Royal Navy in 1941.  Renamed HMS Banff.

AO-74 fleet oiler 1943-1946.The 1848 USS Saranac was a sidewheel styeam sloop of war.  Its first commander was Capt. Josiah Tattnall in 1850 who later served in the Confederate Navy.  he was a vetran of the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War.

--Old B-Runner

USS Saranac-- Part 1: Pursuer of the CSS Shenandoah

From Wikipedia.

On Saturday, I wrote about the CSS Shenandoah barely avoiding a mysterious ship which its commander Waddell believed to be the USS Saranac.  I'd never heard of this ship before, so had to do some research.  The Shenandoah at the time was returning to England to surrender to the British instead of doing so to the United Sates where its crew might likely be considered to be pirates as they were destroying Union ships after the war was over even though they didn't know it was over for quite some time.  Surrendering to a U.S. vessel might mean execution as such.

The USS Saranac (1848) was a sloop of war laid down during the Mexican War but that war was over by the time the vessel underwent sea trials.  It was finally commissioned in 1850 and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific.  It was decommissioned and recommissioned many times and patrolled the U.S. West Coast during the Civil War.

It continued service on the West Coast after the war until it was wrecked on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1875.

--Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago: The CSS Shenandoah Spots a Mysterious Sail-- Part 2: Evading Yankee Ships

"The propeller had been lowered to impede her progress (the Shenandoah's), but the favoring night seemed to come on more slowly than I had ever before known it...  There was but one hope, and that was in a drag, two ends of a hawser made fast and the bite thrown overboard would retard in some degree her progress through the water...  When darkness closed between us we could not have been more than three miles distant.

"The Shenandoah's head was turned south and steam was ordered.  At nine o'clock while our sails were being furled the moon rose and the surface presented a little before by the Shenandoah being greatly diminished by that maneuver it would be difficult to find where she lay.

"The Cardiff coal makes a white vapor which could not be seen two hundred yards off, and now the engines were working and the steamer heading east, we had all the advantages to be expected.  It was the first time our ship had been under steam since crossing the line in the Pacific Ocean, indeed the fires were not lighted during a distance of over thirteen thousand miles.

"The Shenandoah was five hundred miles southeast of the Azores, and if there was an American cruiser in that locality on the 25th day of October, 1865, we were probably in sight of each other.  I have been told that the U.S. steamer Saranac, Captain Walke, was probably the vessel."

As he wrote elsewhere, Waddell again felt: "I believe the Divine will directed and protected that ship in all her adventures.

A Really Close Call.  --Old B-Runner