BANSHEE paddle steamer 1862

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aukepalmhof
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BANSHEE paddle steamer 1862

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:58 pm

Built as a steel, side wheeler blockade runner under yard No 146 by Jones, Quiggin and Co., Liverpool for Messrs John T. Lawrence and Co., Liverpool.
22 November 1962 launched as the BANSHEE. Named after a female spirit of Irish and Scottish folklore.
Tonnage 325 gross, 217 net, 470 dwt., dim. 220 x 20.4 x 12ft., draught 8 ft.
Powered by a 2-cyl. oscillating steam engine, manufactured by H.N. Lawrence & Co., Liverpool, 120 nhp (600hp), speed 15 knots. Daily coal consumption 30 tons.
Could carry around 200 tons of cargo.
Schooner rigged, with two pole masts, two funnels. Turtle-back deck fore and an elliptical stern.
Crew 36.

The outbreak of the American Civil War, and the blockade of the Confederate ports by the Northerners, resulted in much profitable trade to Liverpool, whose manufactures and munitions were urgently needed by the Southern States in return for the raw cotton required in the Lancashire mills.

Completed early 1863 and sailed from Liverpool on 02 March 1863 under command of Capt. J. Steele and bound for Nassau, Bahamas.
When she was underway due to her high engine power and vibrations her hull plates started to leak, and she had to make a call at Cork for repairs.
After repairs she resumed her voyage and reached Nassau 20 April 1863 without further mishap.
She was the first steel vessel that crossed the Atlantic.
In Nassau she was refitted in a blockade runner, her masts were taken down to the lower section, and were made suitable for look-out station.
She was painted gray.
09 May 1863 she left for her first blockade run bound for Wilmington. Seven more voyages were made from Nassau or Bermuda to Wilmington, N.C.

On her ninth voyage she ran out of luck when on 21 November 1863 in the morning she was sighted by the USA Army Transport FULTON, she was transporting troops from Hilton Head to New York City, she immediately gave chase, later joined by the gunboat GRAND GULF, after a chase of two and a half hours under constant shelling of the two Federal ships the BANSHEE was forced to surrender.
A prize crew was put on board and the BANSHEE was towed north.

12 March 1864 she was purchased from the New York Prize Court by the U.S. Navy and fitted out as a gunboat.
Armament 1 – 100pdr., 2 – 30pdrs. guns.
14 June 1864 Acting Volunteer Lieutenant W.H. Garfield was ordered to take command of the BANSHEE and to proceed to Wilmington, N.C. for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
The BANSHEE served with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron until 3 January 1865
Taking part in the attack on Fort Fisher on 24 December 1864.
16 January 1865 she joined the Potomac Flotilla.
30 November 1865 sold by the navy for merchant use in New York.

She was renamed J.L.SMALLWOOD, not an owner given, and used in the fruit and cattle transport across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba.
1867 Sold to N.P Chas Burns and renamed in IRENE, homeport Bahamas.
She was thereafter used in the service to the Bahamas under command of Capt. J.H. Urquhart.
It is believed she survived until 1885, although she may have sunk in a collision in 1868.
1915 Her registration was closed.
Till 1900 under the same name, owners and Captain mentioned in Record of American and Foreign Shipping.

Bahamas 1999 70c sg1171.

Source: Transatlantic Paddle Steamers by H. Philip Spratt. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships.
Lifeline of the Confederacy by Stephen R. Wise.
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