USS George Mangham: A Mortar Boat

The last two posts mentioned a Union ship I'd never heard of before, so you know what that means.  Wikipedia, here I come.

From Wikipedia.

USS GEORGE MANGHAM

The George Mangham was a wooden schooner built in 1854 and acquired by the Union Navy at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 21 September 1861 and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 11 January 1862.  Acting Master  John Collins, Jr., was commander.  It was a mortar boat.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

110 feet length

28  foot beamSpeed:  10 knots

Armament:  

One 13-inch mortar

two 32-pounder guns

Continued September 10.

--Old B-Runner

Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing-- Part 1

 Naval History and Heritage Command.

CALEB CUSHING

Schooner

LENGTH:  100 feet 4 inches

BEAM:  23 feet

DRAFT:  9 feet 7 inches

ARMAMENT:

one 32-pounder

one 12-pdr. Dahlgren

**********************************

The Caleb Cushing was a  revenue cutter also known as the Morris, which was quietly boarded and seized early in the morning hours of 27 June 1863 while in then harbor at Portland, Maine, by Lt. Charles W. Read, CSN.

He and his men had quietly entered the harbor undetected on their  prize schooner Archer.

--Old B-Runner

The Huntress, Last Slave Ship to Leave the Congo in 1865

From Wikipedia.

The Huntress was out of New York and was a hermaphrodite schooner that transported slaves.  It is the last slave ship to leave the Congo of Africa after buying slaves from the Africans.

In March 1865, the Huntress left with a capacity of 200  slaves headed for Louisiana.  When the slave trade ended in 1808, slave readers turned to fast ships, largely topsail schooners and brigs, to outrun the vessels of Britain's West Africa Squadron and the American Navy's African Slave Trade Patrol.

"Negro Island" in the Mermentau River is thought to be the location where the Huntress' cargo died under horrible conditions.  However, records show a Huntress-type vessel landed a cargo of slaves in Cuba in 1864.

--Old B-Runner

Remains of Slave Ship Clotilda May Have Been Found-- Part 2

No definite item has been found to prove without a doubt that the wreck is indeed that of the Clotilda, but the wreck itself dates to the mid-1800s judging from the architecture of it.and has the features of a typical Gulf Coast schooners that were used to haul lumber and heavy cargoes.  The Clotilda was built in 1852 and was a Gulf Coast schooner.

The slave owners are known to have burned the ship at the conclusion of the voyage from Africa to hide the evidence of what they had done.  There is evidence that the wreck had been burned.

A team of archaeologists from West Florida University are investigating the shipwreck.

At this point, they are just looking at what they see above the water and mud.  Many permits are needed to actually begin a dig at the site.

Accounts published in the past have misnamed the ship as the Clotilde, but it is the Clotilda.

Most Likely, It Is the Clotilda.  --Old B-Runner

Major Anderson Reports the Firing on the U.S.Schooner Rhoda H. Shannon on April 3, 1861

APRIL 4TH, 1861:  Report to Col. L. Thomas, Adj. Gen. U.S. Army.

Reporting "circumstances attending a firing, yesterday afternoon by the batteries on Morris Island at a schooner bearing our flag, bound from Boston to Savannah, which erroneously mistaking the light-house off this harbor for that of Tybee, and having failed to get a pilot, was entering the harbor"

"When the firing commenced some of my heaviest guns were concealed from their view by planking, and by the time the battery was ready the firing had ceased."

He decided not to fire back at the Confederate batteries "to resent this insult thus offered to the flag of my beloved country."

Major Anderson further wants all U.S. merchant vessels to be made aware of the situtaion in Charleston harbor.  Further, he believed the Confederate authorities were "certainly blamable for not having constantly vessels off to communicate instructions to those seeking entrance to this harbor."

--Old B-Runner

Operating Along the Coast in 1862-- Part 2: Drinking On the Job

From the diary of Corporal William B. Howard, Co. F, 48th NY Infantry.

JUNE 17, 1862

"A terrible storm raging.  The schooner lies on her side on the bar off Cockspur Island.  The crew is signalizenig from the wreck.  A boat put off in the storm and rescued them from a watery grave.

It proved to be a sutler's schooner loaded with stores.  Claret wine, Champagn and lager beer floated ashore in abundance.  Such a time cannot be described.  Guard house and dungeons full."

Well, after all, they did save their lives.  It was the least they could do to pay them back.  But I imagine the sutler was quite a bit beside himself. 

What a Fortuitous Turn of Events.  I Doubt There Was Much Left of the Alcoholic Part of the Sutler's Stores.  --Old B-Runner