- USS Adelaide (1854)
USS "Adelaide" (1854) was a steamer chartered by the
Union Navy during the beginning of theAmerican Civil War . She was used by the Union Navy as atransport in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.Pre-Civil War commercial maritime service
Sidewheel steamer "Adelaide" was built in 1854 at Greenpoint, Long Island,
New York , by the firm of Lupton and McDermott forCornelius Vanderbilt who intended to send her roundCape Horn for service in the rivers and shallow coastal waters ofCalifornia during the Gold Rush.However, changing business conditions caused this plan to be cancelled; and the ship was sold while she was still under construction to the
Calais, Maine , Steamboat Company for which she operated as a passenger packet betweenBoston, Massachusetts , andNew Brunswick, Canada . TheBaltimore Steam Packet Company purchased the vessel early in February 1859 to replace its steamer "North Carolina" which had caught fire at sea while en route toNorfolk, Virginia , on 29 January of that year and had sunk early the following morning. "Adelaide" arrived at Norfolk late in February and took up duty carrying passengers between that city andBaltimore, Maryland ."Adelaide" detained by the Union Navy at start of Civil War
On 7 May 1861, after having plied the waters of the
Chesapeake Bay on this run for over two years, the steamer arrived at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, her last stop on her route south before Norfolk. She was detained there by Union naval authorities and forbidden to proceed further south since all of the southern coast in Confederate hands was under blockade."Adelaide" chartered as a transport by the Union Navy
A few days later, the Union Navy chartered the ship to serve as a transport attached to the
Atlantic Blockading Squadron . She performed her most important naval service late in the summer of 1861 when she carried Union troops toHatteras Inlet for combined operations against the forts guarding the entrance to theNorth Carolina sounds. This operation on 28 and 29 August enabled the Union Navy to control these important waters, and it led ultimately to the Confederate evacuation ofNorfolk, Virginia .Return to owner and subsequent maritime career
Soon thereafter, the Navy returned the ship to her owner for whom she resumed runs out of
Baltimore, Maryland , which she continued through the end of the war and for many years thereafter. Rebuilt by William Skinner and Sons in 1871, the ship was turned over to Harlan and Hollingsworth in 1879 in partial payment for that firm's construction of the new steamer "Virginia". The following year she began operating out ofLong Branch, New Jersey . On 19 June 1880, "Adelaide" was rammed by the excursion boat "Grand Republic" and sank inNew York harbor .References
See also
*
United States Navy
*American Civil War External links
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a2/adelaide.htm USS Adelaide]
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