Built as a steel/iron paddle-steamer under yard No.169 by Jones Quiggin & Co, Liverpool and ordered by Mr. J.B. Lafitte of Nassau, most probably her real owners were John Fraser and Trendholm Co. at Wilmington, N.C.
25 Nov.1863 launched under the name HOPE, one sistership the COLONEL LAMB, also a famous blockade runner.
Tonnage 1.132 gross, 688 net, 1.698 displacement, dim. 281 x 34.6 x 16.7ft. Draught 11 ft., breadth over paddle boxes 55.3ft.
Schooner rigged. Two pole masts and two raked funnels.
Powered by two fore-and-aft engines of 350 nhp., steam was supplied by four boilers, manufactured and fitted in by James Jack and Co., Liverpool.
July 1864 delivered. Crew 66.
Building cost £38.000
As stated to have been one of the fastest blockade runners of the Confederacy.
After delivery used in blockade running between Nassau and Wilmington. She could carry over 1.800 bales of cotton, on a draft of 11 feet.
Fitted out with five watertight compartments highly unusual at that time.
The first time she appeared in the U.S. consular dispatches is on 10 June 1864. The USS SACRAMENTO got orders at Cork to sail out immediately for Falmouth and try to capture her at sea, but the HOPE arrived safely at Nassau, Bahamas in August.
Arrived Wilmington 27 August 1864 from Nassau. One board two 150 pound Armstrong cannons and two 12-pound Whitworth guns
Sailed from Wilmington on 29 Sept. 1864 bound for Nassau.
During her time as blockade runner she was under command of Capt. William C.Hammer.
After sailing from Nassau, and at about 1.00 a.m. on 22 October 1864 she was sighted off Old Inlet by USS EOLUS, Captain Hammer tried to escape steering out of the coast to deeper water, but due to one of her steam pipes burst, she was overtaken by the EOLUS and captured.
She was sold by the prize court to private interest and renamed SAVANNAH on 11 Jan, 1865.
1866 Sold to the Spanish Government for $76.000, and she became the gunboat CHURRUCA.
1885 Sold from service.
Mali 1996 320fr sg?, scott831e
Sources: http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/csn/h.txt Transatlantic Paddle Steamers by H.Philip Spratt.
Lifeline of the Confederacy by Stephen R.Wise.