Caleb Cushing and the Virginius Affair

From Wikipedia.

The Virginius  Affair was a diplomatic dispute which took place from October 1873 to February 1875 between the United States, United Kingdom and Spain (then in control of Cuba) during the Ten Years' War.

The Virginius was a fast American ship hired by Cuban insurrectionists seeking to break away from Spanish control with the intention of landing men and supplies in Ciba.  It was captured by the Spanish who wanted to try the men on board (many of whom were Americans) as pirates and execute them.

And, that is what they did and 53 met their deaths before the British intervened and stopped the executions.

Throughout the situation, there was talk of the United States declaring war on Spain.  Finally the U.S. consul to Spain, Caleb Cushing  (January 6, 1874 to April 9, 1877), defused the tensions by negotiating  $80,000 in reparations to be paid to the executed Americans' families.

The incident prevented a possible war between the two countries and started a resurgence in the U.S. Navy whose fleet was actually inferior to that of Spain at the time.

--Old B-Runner

Southport/Smithville, North Carolina: The History-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

The area where Southport is located, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina was  explored as early as the 1500s by Spanish explorers.  During the 18th century, British settlements along the Carolina coast lacked  fortifications to protect against pirates and privateers and there were numerous Spanish incursions as well.

In response to these attacks, Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston, in 1744, appointed a committee to best select the site for a fort to protect the Cape Fear River region.  It was determined that the site would be near the mouth of the river where the fort was eventually constructed.

During that same year, France declared war on Britain, later known as King George's War, increasing the need for a fort.  At the same time, Spanish privateer raids increased on the American colonies. As a result, the North Carolina General Assembly authorized the construction of "Johnston's Fort" in April 1745, which would become known as Fort Johnston, the name it carried into the Civil War.

The governor of South Carolina agreed to lend ten small cannons to the fort and the legislature in , in the spring of 1748, appropriated 2,000 pounds for construction costs, and the fort finally became a reality.

The town of Smithville, later Southport, developed around the fort.

It was Smithville during the Civil War.

--Old B-Runner

Adriatic Lost On Way to New York-- Part 3: Captured By the CSS Chickamauga

The captain of the Tallahassee, John Taylor Wood, ordered the Adriatic burned.  The passengers were still aboard and many didn't speak English, and feared they were to be burned as well.  It took a bit of explanation,but they found they were to be removed forts.

Wood convinced them they were in no danger

Despite being worried that he wouldn't have enough room on his ship, he managed to get them all aboard.When word of the Tallahassee's capture of the Adriatic reached New York, the city was in an uproar and Confederates were branded as pirates.

The North's commercial fleet scattered from the waters.

--Old B-Runner

The Steamer St. Nicholas Became the CSS Rappahannock

From the Civil War North Carolina Site.

The last two weeks I have been writing about the Union steamer St. Nicholas, taken by Confederates boarding while posing as passengers and led by a former U.S. Navy officer named George Hollins back on June 29-30, 1861.

The Confederate sidewheel steamer CSS Rappahannock was a 1,200 tons, one gun warship, formerly the passenger steamer St. Nicholas captured on the Potomac River 28 June 1861.  It was condemned in prize court and purchased by the Confederate Navy and commanded by Lt. H.H. Lewis, CSN.

It operated on the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers until April 1862 when it was burned by the Confederates at Fredericksburg..

The Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks says it was burned April 19, 1862, at Fredericktown.

--Old B-R'er

The Piratical Capture of the Steamer St. Nicholas-- Part 2: "A Brilliant Exploit"

"After the steamer left Point Lookout, Capt. HOLLINS threw off his disguise, and with the aid of the passengers, seized the boat, which was immediately put across Coney River, on the Virginia side.  Here the rest of the passengers, not a party to the plot, were landed, including the captain, who was placed under guard.

"The steamer then went on a piratical cruise toward the Rappahannock River, capturing three vessels on her way, laden with ice, coal and coffee, with all which HOLLINS made his way to Fredericksburgh.

"The rebel papers here published accounts of this transaction this evening, calling it "a brilliant exploit."  Some accounts say about two hundred rebel troops were placed on board the steamer at Coney."

That Pirate Hollins.  --Old B-R'er

The Piratical Capture of the St. Nicholas-- Part 1: Disguised as a Woman

From the July 2, 1861, New York Times.

This past Tuesday, June 28, I wrote about the seizure of the Union steamer St. Nicholas.  Here is what the New York Times had to say about it back then.

PIRATICAL CAPTURE OF THE STEAMER ST. NICHOLAS

"The seizure of the steamer St. Nicholas, from this post as mentioned in our Washington dispatches, proves to have been a bold piratical expedition.

"When the steamer left here on Friday evening, she had on board about 50 secession passengers, most of whom were disguised as mechanics, going to Points on the Maryland shore of the Potomac.

"Among the number was Capt. HOLLINS, late of the United States ship Susquehannah, who was disguised, some accounts say, as a woman, and retired to a state room immediately on going on board the steamer.

I Like How They Considered It a Piratical Act.    --Old B-R'er

The Surrender of the CSS Shenandoah-- Part 2: Welles Wants Blood

Gideon Welles wrote: "The close of the career of the Shenandoah on the high seas was notoriously and indisputably that of a pirate, and the piracy was one of the most odious and despicable character.

"It was not the plunder of richly laden barks belonging to 'merchant princes,' who could afford the loss, though they might feel it, but the wanton destruction of the property of individuals seeking a humble subsistence in one of the most laborious and perilous of callings, and who could make no show of resistance to the overwhelming force of the pirate.

"No other description of robbery upon the high seas could have inflicted so much individual distress upon persons so little able to bear it, and so little deserving of it."

In other words, Welles regarded Waddell and crew as pirates and would like to have them hanged.  And, as far as  the whaling ships destroyed, these were mostly owned by those "merchant princes" he spoke of and all were insured by maritime insurance companies who were extremely mad about the claims.

Good Thing Waddell and Crew Made It to Liverpool and Weren't Captured by the United States.  I Think Old Gideon Would Have Hoisted 'Em All.  --Old B-R'er

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