USS Advance (1862)
 Advance (later USS Frolic) shortly after her capture by USS Santiago de Cuba in 1864
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States | |
| Name | USS Advance |
| Builder | Caird & Co. (Greenock , Scotland) |
| Launched | 3 July 1862 |
| Christened | Lord Clyde |
| Acquired | (USN): 10 September 1864 |
| Commissioned | 28 October 1864 |
| Decommissioned | 31 October 1877 |
| Renamed |
|
| Stricken | October 1883 (est.) |
| Homeport |
|
| Captured |
|
| Fate | Sold, 1 October 1883 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 880 tons |
| Length | 230 ft (70 m) |
| Beam | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Draught | 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 12 knots |
| Complement | 107 (from 1864) |
| Armament | (from 1864)
one 20-pounder rifle four 24-pounder howitzers |
USS Advance, the second United States Navy ship to be so named, was later known as USS Frolic, and was originally the blockade runner Advance captured by the Union Navy during the latter part of the American Civil War. She was purchased by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She also served as dispatch ship and supply vessel when military action eventually slowed.
Construction and Irish service
Lord Clyde, named for Scottish military officer
Service with the Confederacy
During the
Three months later, a half share in Advance was sold to the firm of Power, Low & Co. in order to raise funds towards purchasing additional ships.[5] She successfully passed through the blockade between the Cape Fear River and Nassau or Bermuda some seventeen times between June 1863 and September 1864, under the command of Lt. John J. Guthrie, CSN.[1][6]
Advance was commanded by Capt. Tom Crossan when captured by USS Santiago de Cuba on 10 September 1864 when she attempted to put to sea from Wilmington, North Carolina. Gov. Vance attributed her capture to use of low grade North Carolina bituminous coal and denounced Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory for giving the stockpile of smokeless anthracite to CSS Tallahassee (a raiding cruiser) so that none was left for Advance to run out of Wilmington safely. Writing on 3 January 1865, Vance complained:
Why a State struggling for the common good, to clothe and provide for its troops in the public service, should meet with no more favor than a blockade gambler passes my comprehension.
Advance was condemned by the New York
Civil War service
Bombardment of Fort Fisher
Advance departed New York City on 30 October; arrived off
The first – abortive—attempt was carried out between 24 and 26 December 1864 after a bizarre attempt to flatten some of the defenses by running what amounted to a
The following day, Christmas 1864, she and five or six other warships moved off to draw fire from Half Moon Battery as preparation for the Army's landings. Though an 8-inch gun in the Confederate battery drove off other vessels in the division as well as some
After a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, for supplies between 31 December 1864 and 11 January 1865, Advance returned to her blockade station off the Cape Fear River mouth on 13 January – Friday the 13th, to be exact, an ominous day for the Southerners defending Fort Fisher. Before dawn that day, the Federal fleet unleashed a terrific bombardment on the fort. Not long thereafter, around 0800, about 8,000 Union troops began landing on the peninsula north of the fortifications.
The following day, the fleet resumed its bombardment while the Union Army began landing its own supporting artillery. Advance, in one of the reserve divisions, helped support the landing of the Army guns and supplies while the bulk of the fleet continued to batter the Fort Fisher defenses. The main attack commenced on 15 January 1865. The Army, aided by sailors and marines from the fleet, stormed the Southern positions. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates fought with the tenacity and ferocity of desperation—more often than not at close quarters with
North Atlantic blockade operations
Advance resumed duty on the blockade. With the last deep-draft Confederate port closed, few runners tried to make the run. Those that did were of very shallow draft and of even more limited cargo capacity than that characteristic of their deep-draft predecessors. That fact made blockade running a highly unprofitable venture considering the danger involved. As a consequence, Advance participated in no captures.
Instead, she served as a dispatch and supply ship for the remainder of her tour of duty with the
End-of-war activity
On 11 February, she put into Norfolk for a month of repairs before embarking passengers and sailing for New York City on 13 March. She reached that port the following day and entered the
Post-war operations as USS Frolic
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On 24 June 1865, Frolic departed the east coast to join the newly formed
1869 recommissioning
Recommissioned on 24 September 1869, Frolic patrolled the fishing grounds off Nova Scotia between April and October 1870. She arrived at Washington, D.C., on 26 October 1870 and was decommissioned there on 11 November for repairs. On 18 January 1872, she was recommissioned at Washington, Lt. Comdr. G. C. Remey in command. On 19 February, Frolic departed Washington, D.C., to relieve USS Tallapoosa on patrol off the New England coast. She concluded that assignment in May and returned to Washington on the 24th.
Between 12 and 16 June 1872, she made the passage between Washington, D.C. and New York City. At the latter port, she became station ship and, on the 29th, broke the flag of Vice Admiral
Final decommissioning
She returned to Washington, D.C., on 20 October 1877 and was decommissioned there for the last time on 31 October 1877. Frolic remained at Washington, in ordinary, until sold to Mr. J. P. Agnew, of Alexandria, Virginia, on 1 October 1883.
See also
- Blockade runners of the American Civil War
- Ships captured in the American Civil War
- Union Navy
- Confederate Navy
- Bibliography of American Civil War naval history
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84158-424-9.
- ^ "Launch". Greenock Advertiser. Vol. LXIII, no. 8080. 5 July 1862. p. 2. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ a b c "Lord Clyde". Scottish Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ "Arrival of a new steamer". Freeman's Journal. Vol. XCV. Dublin. 24 September 1862. p. 2. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ ISBN 0-87249-799-2.
- ^ a b "A. D. Vance". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command, United States Navy. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- ^ "Medal of Honor Recipients – Interim Awards, 1871–1898". Medal of Honor Citations. United States Army Center of Military History. 5 August 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found Confederate service here and Union service here.
- USS Frolic (II) ex USS Advance (II) (1864-1865)
- USS Advance
Further reading
- Scharf, John Thomas (1894). History of the Confederate States Navy from Its Organization to the Surrender of Its Last Vessel. J. McDonough.
- Still, William N. Jr.; Taylor, John M.; Delaney, Norman C. (1998). Raiders & Blockaders: The American Civil War Afloat. Washington, D.C: Brassey's Inc. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-57488-164-6.
- Tucker, Spencer (2010). The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, 829 pages. ISBN 978-1-59884-338-5.