Douglas 1

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shipstamps
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Douglas 1

Post by shipstamps » Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:19 pm



Built in 1858, this steamer was the fastest then afloat and had the unusual distinction of serving on both sides during the American Civil War. In 1862 she was sold to agents for the Confederate States of America and made eighteen blockade-running trips under the name 'Margaret and Jessie' before being captured and sold to the Federal Navy. She was commissioned as U.S.S. Gettysburg and shared in the capture of five Confederate runners.
This label depicts the first Douglas of the company which introduced straight stems to the fleet. In other respects she was a startling contrast to her predecessors in that she was exceptionally long and narrow-gutted. On trial her speed was17.25 knots, and she usually made the run between Liverpool and Douglas in about 4 hrs. 20 min. and also was reputedly the fastest steamer afloat at that time.
In 1862 she was acquired by Fraser, Trenholm and Company, Confederate Agents, for the purpose of running the Federal blockade in the American Civil War. Painted grey and rechristened Margaret and Jessie she had a most successful career until driven ashore at Nassau, in the Bahamas, by the Federal ship Rhode Island in June 1863. The engines of the Douglas were to be seen on Nassau beach for over 80 years after the incident. This vessel was also the first 2-funnelled steamer built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and was the last built for the line by Robert Napier. She was a ship of 700 gross tons on dimensions: 205 ft. (b.p.) x 26 ft. x 14 ft. and was completed in 1858.

SG171 IOM Post Office and Sea Breezes 7/54

aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Douglas 1

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:58 pm

Built as a paddle steamer by Robert Napier & Co. at Glasgow for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Ltd.
28 May 1858 launched under the name DOUGLAS (I)
Tonnage 700 ton gross, dim. 205.0 x 26.0 x 14.0ft.
Side lever steam engine hp? Speed during trials 17¼ knots.
She was the first steamer of the company with an upright stem.
Building cost £17.500, plus KING ORRY built in 1842, in part exchange.

After completing used in the ferry service between Liverpool and Douglas.
Her fastest crossing between these two ports was in 4 hours and 20 minutes.
After 4 years service for the company she was sold, nominally to Cunard Wilson & Co., but really to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., the American Confederate Agents. She was sold for £24.000.

Painted gray and renamed MARGARET AND JESSIE and used for the blockade running during the Civil War in America. She was then owned by John Fraser and Company at Charleston, and under command of Capt. William Wilson, she made four voyages between Nassau and Charleston.
13 Feb. 1863, she sailed for her first voyage from Charleston, and returned on 24 March from Nassau.
06 April sailed out again to Nassau and returned on 20 May.
31 May sailed out again to Nassau.
The Union cruiser RHODE ISLAND chased her then, and she ran aground off Eleuthera

The following comes from the newspaper Nassau Guardian of 3 June 1863.

We have to record this evening an other unjustifiable outrage committed by a Federal gunboat within the prescribed limits of our shores. On Saturday last the MARGARET AND JESSIE under Capt. Wilson, from Charleston for this port, was fallen in with by the federal steamer RHODE ISLAND off Abaco, and chased till she arrived close to the shore of Jennes Point, Eleuthera.
There would be no legal cause of complaint had the pursuit and firing ceased as soon as the MARGARET AND JESSIE approached within the distance of three miles from the land; but as she neared the coast, and was only 20 yards of, that is between the reef and the land, the gunboat, which was not more than from a quarter to a half-a-mile distant, commenced pouring in broadside after broadside, varying the performance with shot, grape and shell- not only to the imminent danger of all on board (and there were ladies among the passengers), but to serious alarm of the inhabitants of the Island, who suddenly found themselves subjected to a sharp and decisive bombardment. The missiles fired from the RHODE ISLAND ploughed up the earth in various directions, and came in close proximity to, it not actually passing through, dwellings, and drove people to seek refuge between rocks and other protections. This was kept up for miles, and at length the MAGARET AND JESSIE received a shot through her boiler, and another through her bows, which forced her to take the beach, then only fifty yards distant.

Some day later she was refloated and arrived at Nassau, after repair sailed out again for Charleston where she arrived on 16 June.

She was then sold to the Import and Export Company, and came under the command of Capt. Robert Lockwood, and continued her career in blockade running until captured by the US Federal Navy.

07 July, sailed again out for Nassau and returned, (date not given.) Her last voyage from Charleston was when she sailed again in July (not a date given) from that port.
When she was trying to enter Wilmington, the FULTON, KEYSTONE STATE and NANSEMOND off Wilmington, N.C, captured her on 5 Nov. 1863.
She was purchased from the New York Prize Court by the Federal Navy and commissioned GETTYSBURG at the New York Navy Yard on 2 May 1864. She was named of the southern USA Pennsylvania, site of one of the most important battles of the Civil War 1 – 3 July 1863. It was at the dedication of the National Cemetery on the battleground 19 November 1863 that President Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address.
She came under command of Lieutenant Roswell H. Lamson.
She is then given with a tonnage of 950 tons, dim. 221 x 26.3 x 13.6ft. Speed 15 knots.
Crew 96.
Armament 1 – 30 pdr. Parrott, 2 – 12 pdr. guns and 4 – 24 pdrs howitzer.

A fast strong steamer, GETTYSBURG was assigned blockading duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and departed New York 7 May 1864. She arrived at Beaufort, N.C. 14 May and from there took station at the entrance to the Cape Fear River.

For the next 7 months, Gettysburg was engaged in the vital business of capturing blockade-runners carrying supplies to the strangling South. She captured several ships, and occasionally performed other duties. On 8 October, for instance, she rescued six survivors from schooner HORNE, which had capsized in a squall.

GETTYSBURG took part in the attack on Fort Fisher 24-25 December 1864. Gettysburg assisted with the devastating bombardment prior to the landings by Army troops, and during the actual landings stood close to shore to furnish cover for the assault. GETTYSBURG’s boats were used to help transport troops to the beaches.

With the failure of the first attack on the formidable Confederate works; plans were laid for a second assault, this time including a landing force of sailors and marines to assault the sea face of the fort. In this attack, 15 January 1865, Gettysburg again engaged the fort in the preliminary bombardment, and furnished a detachment of sailors under Lieutenant Lamson and other officers in a gallant assault, which was stopped under very ramparts of Forth Fisher. Lamson and a group of officers and men were forced to spend the night in a ditch under Confederate guns before they could escape. Through failing to take the sea face of Fort Fisher, the attack by the Navy diverted enough of the defenders to make the Army assault successful and insure victory. Gettysburg suffered two men killed and six wounded in the assault.

GETTYSBURG spent the remaining months of the war on blockade duty off Wilmington, and operated from April to June between Boston and Norfolk carrying freight and passengers. She decommissioned 23 June 1865 at New York Navy Yard.

Recommissioning 3 December 1866, GETTYSBURG made a cruise to the Caribbean Sea, returning to Washington on 18 February, where she decommissioned again 1 March 1867.

GETTYSBURG went back in commission 3 March 1868 at Norfolk and put to sea 28 March on special service in the Caribbean. Until July 1868, she visited various ports in the area, protecting American interests, among them Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; and ports of Haiti. Between 3 July and 13 August GETTYSBURG assisted in the laying of a telegraph cable from Key West to Havana, and joined with scientists from the Hydrographic Office in a cruise to determine the longitudes of West Indian points using electric telegraph. From 13 August 1868 to 1 October 1869, she cruised between various Haitian ports and Key West, again helping to maintain peace in the area and protecting American interests. GETTYSBURG arrived New York Navy Yard 8 October 1869, decommissioned the same day, and entered the yard for repairs.

GETTYSBURG was laid up in ordinary until 6 November 1873, when she again commissioned at Washington Navy Yard. She spent several months transporting men and supplies to the various Navy yards on the Atlantic coast and on 25 February 1874 anchored in Pensacola harbour to embark members of the survey team seeking routes for an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua. GETTYSBURG transported the engineers to Aspinwall, panama and Greystone, Nicaragua, and returned them to Norfolk 10 May 1874. After several more trips on the Atlantic coast with passengers and supplies, the ship again decommissioned 9 April 1875 at Washington Navy yard.

Recommissioned 21 September 1875, GETTYSBURG departed Washington for Norfolk, where she arrived 14 October. Assigned to assist in another of the important Hydrographic Office expeditions in the Caribbean, she departed Norfolk 7 November. During the next few months she contributed markedly to safe navigation in the West Indies in surveys that led to precise charts. She returned to Washington with the scientific team 14 June, decommissioning 26 June.

GETTYSBURG recommissioned 20 September 1876, for special duty to the Mediterranean, where she was to obtain navigational information about the coast and islands of the area. GETTYSBURG departed Norfolk 17 October for Europe. During the next two years, she visited nearly every port in the Mediterranean, taking soundings and making observations on the southern coast of France, the entire coastline of Italy, and the Adriatic Islands. GETTYSBURG continued to the coast of Turkey, and from there made soundings on the coast of Egypt and other North African points, Sicily and Sardinia.

While visiting Genoa, 22 April 1879, GETTYSBURG rescued the crew of a small vessel which had run upon the rocks outside the breakwater. Her iron plates corroded from years of almost uninterrupted service and her machinery weakened. GETTYSBURG decommissioned 06 May 1879 and she was sold on 8 May 1879. Later that year scrapped at Naples.


Sources: West Coast Steamers by Duckworth and Langmuir. Charleston’s Maritime Heritage 1670-1865 by P.C.Coker III. Log Book Volume 9 page 156.
http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook ... 4/ch03.htm



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