View source for CSS Sumter

{{Short description|Steam cruiser of the Confederate States Navy}}
{{other ships|Gibraltar (ship)}}
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|Ship caption=CSS ''Sumter''
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|Ship commissioned=3 June 1861 as CSS ''Sumter''
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|Ship fate=Sold 19 December 1862 (renamed ''Gibraltar''). Foundered on the Dogger Bank 14 February 1867.
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'''CSS ''Sumter''''', converted from the 1859-built merchant steamer '''''Habana''''', was the first [[Cruiser#Steam cruisers|steam cruiser]] of the [[Confederate States Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]]. She operated as a [[Commerce raiding|commerce raider]] in the [[Caribbean]] and in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] against [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] merchant shipping between July and December 1861, taking eighteen prizes, but was trapped in [[Gibraltar]] by [[Union Navy]] warships. Decommissioned, she was sold in 1862 to the [[United Kingdom and the American Civil War|British]] office of a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] merchant and renamed '''''Gibraltar''''', successfully running the [[Union blockade]] in 1863 and surviving the war.

==Construction and merchant service before the American Civil War==
The wood-hulled merchant steamship ''Habana'' was built in 1859 at the [[Philadelphia]] shipyard of Birely & Lynn for Captain James McConnell's New Orleans & Havana Steam Navigation Co.<ref name="Bishop">{{cite book |last1=Bishop |first1=J Leander |title=A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860: Vol III |date=1868 |publisher=Edward Young & Co |location=Philadelphia |page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryamerica04youngoog/page/n75 67] |isbn=9780665256561 |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryamerica04youngoog |accessdate=20 November 2018}}</ref><ref name="NYT1861">{{cite news |title=More about the Sumter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/09/03/archives/more-about-the-sumter.html |accessdate=20 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=3 September 1861}}</ref><ref group=Note >"Byerly" probably a mis-spelling</ref> She was powered by a 400-[[horsepower]] [[steam engine]] made by [[Neafie & Levy|Neafie, Levy & Co]], also of Philadelphia, driving a single [[propeller]] and was also rigged for sail, generally described as [[Barque#Barque rig|bark rigged]]. She was variously reported to measure 499 or 520 [[gross registered ton]]s, with a [[length overall]] of {{convert|184|ft|m|abbr=on}}, [[Beam (nautical)|beam]] of {{convert|30|ft|m|abbr=on}} and a [[Draft (hull)|draft]] of {{convert|12|ft|m|abbr=on}}.<ref name="NYT1861" /><ref name=ALR1861>{{cite book |title=American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping |date=1861 |publisher=E & W Blunt |location=New York, NY |pages=546–547 |url=https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l0237571861/582/ |accessdate=20 November 2018}}</ref> ''Habana'' was launched on 18 May 1859, performed well on trials and was considered a fast ship in subsequent mail service out of [[New Orleans]].<ref name="NYT1861" />  
   
==Confederate States Navy service==
[[File:Css sumter.jpg|thumb|left|A drawing of ''Sumter'' running the blockade out of New Orleans in 1861.]]
''Habana'' was purchased by the Confederate government at New Orleans in April 1861, converted to a cruiser and placed under the command of [[Raphael Semmes]]. Renamed ''Sumter'', she was commissioned into the Confederate States Navy on 3 June 1861 and broke through the Federal blockade of the [[Mississippi River]] mouth later that month.

Eluding the pursuing sloop-of-war {{USS|Brooklyn|1858|6}}, the pioneering Confederate Navy [[commerce raider]] captured eight U.S.-flagged merchant ships in waters near [[Cuba]] early in July 1861, then moved south to the [[Brazil]]ian coast off [[Maranhão]], where she took two more ships. Two additional merchantman fell to ''Sumter'' in September and October 1861. While coaling at [[Martinique]] in mid-November, she was blockaded by the Union sloop of war {{USS|Iroquois|1859|2}}, but was able to escape to sea at night. ''Sumter'' captured another six ships from late November 1861 into January 1862 while cruising from the western hemisphere to European waters. Damaged during a severe Atlantic storm, she anchored at [[Cadiz]], Spain, on 4 January 1862, where she was allowed only to make necessary repairs without refueling, and was then forced to sail to British-held [[Gibraltar]].

Unable to make more comprehensive repairs or purchase coal there, ''Sumter'' remained at anchor in Gibraltar watched by a succession of U.S. Navy warships, among them the [[sloop-of-war]] {{USS|Kearsarge|1861|6}} and the [[gunboat]] {{USS|Chippewa|1861|6}}. Semmes and many of his officers were reassigned to the new cruiser {{ship|CSS|Alabama}}, while most of the crew was paid off, leaving only a skeleton crew aboard her.

In October 1862, acting captain [[Midshipman]] William Andrews was shot dead in his quarters aboard the ''Sumter'' by acting [[master's mate]] Joseph Hester.  Hester alleged that Andrews had planned to sail ''Sumter'' to [[Algeciras]], [[Spain]] and surrender her to a U.S. Navy ship there.  Hester was arrested by British authorities, and a [[coroner's jury]] returned a verdict of wilful murder.  Hester's allegations of Andrews' supposed treachery was not corroborated by the rest of the crew.<ref name=GH271062>{{Cite news |title=The Bombay and Mediterranean Mails |newspaper=Glasgow Herald |location=Glasgow |date=27 October 1862 |issue=7112 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://civilwarthosesurnames.blogspot.com/2012/12/murder-on-board-sumter-1862.html?m=0|title = Civil War Days & Those Surnames: Murder on Board the Sumter, 1862|date = 5 December 2012}}</ref>

==Blockade runner ''Gibraltar''==
''Sumter'' was disarmed and sold at auction on 19 December 1862 to the [[Liverpool]] office of [[George Trenholm|Fraser, Trenholm and Company]].  ''Sumter'''s sail plan was changed to a [[Full-rigged ship|ship rig]] and she continued her service to the Confederacy under British colors as the [[blockade runner]] ''Gibraltar''.

Though her career as a warship had lasted barely six months, ''Sumter'' had taken eighteen prizes, of which she burned eight, and released or bonded nine; only one was recaptured. The diversion of Union warships to blockade her had been in itself of significant service to the Confederate cause.

As ''Gibraltar'', she ran at least once into [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], under Capt. E. C. Reid, a Southerner. He sailed from Liverpool on 3 July 1863 with a pair of 22-ton [[Blakely rifle]]s and other valuable munitions, returning with a full load of cotton. The beginning of this voyage is recorded only because the United States [[Consul (representative)|Consul]] in Liverpool passionately protested ''Gibraltar''{{'}}s being allowed to sail (ostensibly for [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]]), days before formal customs clearance: "She is one of the privileged class and not held down like other vessels to strict rules and made to conform to regulations." The arrival at Wilmington is also a matter of record because of the accidental sinking of the Confederate transport steamer ''Sumter'' by Confederate gunners at [[Fort Moultrie]] near [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] in late August 1863.<ref>https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217657382.pdf "The Archeology of Civil War Naval Operations at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, 1861-1865"</ref> Until November 1863, U.S. naval intelligence understandably confused this ship with the former commerce raider.

The last official report of her appears to have been by the U.S. Consul at Liverpool on 10 July 1864: "The pirate ''Sumter'' (called ''Gibraltar'') is laid up at [[Birkenhead]]."<ref>[https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/sumter.html Naval History and Heritage Command: ''Sumter''.]</ref> ''Gibraltar'' was sold at [[auction]] at Liverpool on orders from the U.S. Consul on 14 June 1866. She was purchased for [[Pound Sterling|£1,150]]<ref name=BNL180666>{{Cite news |title=Shipping News |newspaper=Belfast News-Letter |location=Belfast |date=18 June 1866 |issue=33402 }}</ref> and based in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], [[East Riding of Yorkshire]], employed in the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] trade. On 10 February 1867 she sprang a leak whilst on a voyage from [[Helsingborg]], Sweden to [[Grimsby]], [[Lincolnshire]], and foundered on the [[Dogger Bank]] on 14 February 1867, with her crew being rescued by a [[fishing smack]].<ref name=Times190267>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Loss of the ex-Confederate Cruiser Sumter |date=19 February 1867 |page=7 |issue=25738 |column=D }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Blockade runners of the American Civil War]]
*[[Confederate States Navy]]
*[[Union Navy]]
*[[Bibliography of early American naval history#American Civil War|Bibliography of American Civil War naval history]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Semmes, Raphael, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uBbhsAs2sWwC&pg=PP5 The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter]'', Carleton, 1864, Digitized by Digital Scanning Incorporated, 2001, {{ISBN|1-58218-353-8}}.

See The Cornhill Magazine, No6 (Jy-Dec 1862) pp187–205: "The Cruise of the Confederate Ship 'Sumter': [From the Private Journal of an Officer]".  A swaggering account, unsigned.

*''This article contains [[public domain]] material from the [[Naval History and Heritage Command]], entry [https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/sumter.html here].''

{{CSN Cruisers}}
{{1867 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumter}}
[[Category:Cruisers of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Missing ships]]
[[Category:Commerce raiders]]
[[Category:Raids of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Ships built in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:1859 ships]]
[[Category:Blockade runners of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in February 1867]]