 CSSFlorida | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States | |
| Name | CSSFlorida |
| 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 |
|
CSSFlorida was asloop-of-war in the service of theConfederate States Navy. She served as acommerce raider during theAmerican Civil War before being sunk in 1864.
Florida was built by theBritish firmWilliam C. Miller & Sons ofToxteth,Liverpool. Launched in December 1861,[1] she was purchased by theConfederacy from Fawcett, Preston & Co., also of Liverpool, who provided her engines. Known in the shipyard asOreto and initially calledCSS Manassas by the Confederates, the ship was the first of several foreign-built commerce raiders commissioned as into the Confederate States Navy as CSSFlorida.Union naval records often referred to her asOreto or confused her withCSS Alabama, another Confederate vessel.
Florida departedEngland on 22 March 1862, bound forNassau in theBahamas. 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 preventedFlorida from attempting a rendezvous with her planned tender in Nassau harbor, so the two ships met instead near the more isolatedGreen 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 CSSFlorida on August 17, withLieutenantJohn Newland Maffitt in command.
During her outfitting,yellow fever raged among her crew, in five days reducing her effective force to one fireman and four deckhands. In desperate plight she ran across to theSpanish colony ofCuba. InCárdenas, Lieutenant Maffitt too was stricken with the disease.
In this condition, against all probability, Maffitt sailed her from Cárdenas toMobile,Alabama. In an audacious dash, the "Prince of Privateers" braved a hail of projectiles from the Unionblockaders and raced through them to anchor beneath the guns ofFort Morgan inMobile Bay, where she was received with a hero's welcome by the war-weary citizens of Mobile.Florida had been unable to fight back not only because of sickness but becauserammers, sights, beds, locks andquoins - necessary to use her guns - had, inadvertently, not been loaded in the Bahamas. Having resupplied her stores armed with the gun accessories she lacked, along with added crew members,Florida escaped to sea on January 16, 1863 under (now) Captain John Newland Maffitt.[3]
After coaling at Nassau, she spent six months off the coasts of North and South America and in theWest 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 fromBermuda forBrest,France, where she lay in the French naval dock from August 23, 1863, to February 12, 1864. There, broken in health, Maffitt relinquished command to CommanderJoseph Nicholson Barney, whose ill health prompted an additional handover to LieutenantCharles Manigault Morris. Departing for theWest Indies,Florida bunkered (reloaded her coal bunkers) atBarbados, although the three months specified by British law had not elapsed since her last coaling at aBritish Empire port. She then skirted the U.S. coast, sailed east across theAtlantic Ocean toTenerife in theCanary Islands and thence back southwest toBahia,Brazil, arriving on October 4, 1864.
Anchored at Bahia on October 7,Florida, while her captain was ashore with half his crew, was caught defenseless in an illegal night attack byCommanderNapoleon Collins, of the U.S. Navy steam sloop-of-warUSS Wachusett. Towed to sea, she was sent to the United States as a prize, despite theEmpire of Brazil's protests at the violation of its sovereignty. Commander Collins wascourt-martialed and was convicted of violating Brazilian territorial rights, but the verdict was set aside byUnited States Secretary of the NavyGideon Welles. Collins won fame and eventual promotion for his daring capture of the raider.
AtNewport News,Virginia, on November 28, 1864,Florida reached the end of her career when she sank under dubious circumstances after a collision with theUnited States Army TransportUSAT Alliance, a troop ferry.Florida could therefore not be delivered to Brazil in satisfaction of the final court order, and could not rejoin the Confederate States Navy.
Florida captured 37 prizes in her impressive career. Two of her prizes were absorbed into the Confederate States Navy asCSS Tacony andCSS Clarence and in turn took 23 more prizes.
Today, many of the artifacts from CSSFlorida are at theHampton Roads Naval Museum.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
37°04′24″N76°32′35″W / 37.0732°N 76.5431°W /37.0732; -76.5431