The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

USS Penguin-- Part 2

The Penguin then joined the Potomac Flotilla August 14, 1861 before being ordered to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in October, 1861, where it participated in the capture of Port Royal, S.C..

In late November, it captured a blockade-runner.

March 4, 1862, the Penguin assisted in the capture of Fernandino, Florida. Eighteen days later, boat crews from the Penguin and the Henry Andrew were attacked in Mosquito Inlet, south of Daytona Beach, and Acting Lt. Thomas Budd was killed along with four others.

Later, the well-traveled Penguin was ordered to the Gulf Blockade, where, on July 8, 1864, it assisted in the destruction of the blockade-runner Matagorda. On January 21, 1865, it forced another runner, the Granite City, ashore at Velasco, Texas.

It was decommissioned in August, 1865 and sold where it entered commercial service as the Florida before being converted to a sailing schooner in 1884.

Prize money to be made from captures, not destruction of blockade-runners.

The Story of a Blockader. --Old B-Runner

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