CSS Florida (cruiser)
CSS Florida
| |
History | |
---|---|
Confederate States | |
Name | CSS Florida |
Builder | William C. Miller & Sons, Liverpool |
Launched | December 1861 |
Commissioned | August 17, 1862 |
Decommissioned | October 7, 1864 |
Fate | Captured by US Navy; sunk in collision November 28, 1864 |
General characteristics | |
Length | 191 ft 0 in (58.2 m) |
Beam | 27 ft 2 in (8.3 m) |
Draft | 13 ft 0 in (4.0 m) |
Propulsion | Sails and steam engine |
Speed |
|
Complement | 146 |
Armament |
|
CSS Florida was a sloop-of-war in the service of the Confederate States Navy. She served as a commerce raider during the American Civil War before being sunk in 1864.
Service history
Florida was built by the British firm William C. Miller & Sons of Toxteth, Liverpool. Launched in December 1861,[1] she was purchased by the Confederacy from Fawcett, Preston & Co., also of Liverpool, who provided her engines. Known in the shipyard as Oreto and initially called CSS Manassas by the Confederates, the ship was the first of several foreign-built commerce raiders commissioned as into the Confederate States Navy as CSS Florida. Union naval records often referred to her as Oreto or confused her with CSS Alabama, another Confederate vessel.
Florida departed England on 22 March 1862, bound for Nassau in the Bahamas. To avoid suspicions that she was destined for Confederate service, the ship was only loaded with enough coal to reach Nassau. However, once in Nassau she planned to meet with a Confederate ship, take on a portion of that ship's coal, and use the additional fuel to steam to the nearest Confederate port. However, having been built under foreign licence, she was the subject of much diplomatic and intelligence correspondence.[2] The governor of Nassau prevented Florida from attempting a rendezvous with her planned tender in Nassau harbor, so the two ships met instead near the more isolated Green Cay. There, stores, armaments, and coal were taken aboard the ship. While anchored off Green Cay, she was officially commissioned into the Confederate States Navy as CSS Florida on August 17, with Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt in command.
During her outfitting,
In this condition, against all probability, the intrepid Maffitt sailed her from Cárdenas to
After coaling at Nassau, she spent six months off the coast of North and South America and in the West Indies, with calls at neutral ports, all the while making captures and eluding the large Federal squadron pursuing her.
Florida sailed on July 27, 1863 from
Anchored at Bahia on October 7, Florida, while her captain was ashore with half his crew, was caught defenseless in an illegal night attack by Commander Napoleon Collins, of the U.S. Navy steam sloop-of-war USS Wachusett. Towed to sea, she was sent to the United States as a prize, despite the Empire of Brazil's protests at the violation of its sovereignty. Commander Collins was court-martialed and was convicted of violating Brazilian territorial rights, but the verdict was set aside by United States Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Collins won fame and eventual promotion for his daring capture of the raider.
At
Florida captured 37 prizes in her impressive career. Two of her prizes were absorbed into the Confederate States Navy as CSS Tacony and CSS Clarence and in turn took 23 more prizes.
Today, many of the artifacts from CSS Florida are at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.
References
- ^ "Launch of a Clipper Screw Steamer". Liverpool Mercury. No. 4314. Liverpool. 9 December 1861.
- ^ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 381.
- ^ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 600.
External links
- New International Encyclopedia. 1905. .
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.