The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

CSS Peedee Torched and Blown Up

From Dec. 21, 2010 CNN.

The CSS Peedee was unable to reach open water in the Atlantic because Union forces had occupied Georgetown, SC, on the coast.

The vessel was built at the Mars Bluff Confederate Navy Yard on the Pee Dee River. The Peedee did fire a couple shots at Union forces before it was torched and blown up March 15, 1865.

No contemporary photos are drawings exist, but the ship was believed to have been 150-170 feet long.

Before the ship was sunk, its cannons were thrown overboard into the Pee Dee River, about a mile from the wreckage. Mars Bluff Navy Yard has never been located itself, but is believed to be another mile above the wreckage.

The ship's propeller is at the Florence Museum in South Carolina. The Mars Bluff Navy Yard built two at least two other ships. One was a steam tender and the other a torpedo boat.

Where's the Yard? --Old B-R'er

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