While looking up stuff on the USS Wissahickon, I came across information that it and the USS America ran the blockade runner Georgiana ashore by Charleston Harbor. I'd also never heard of the Georgiana, so looked it up.
The Georgiana was a 580-ton, 205.6 feet long, 25.2 beam, brig-rigged steamer built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1862. In 1863, it ran the blockade into Charleston harbor with 140 crew, 18 cannons, 10,000 Enfield rifles, and $90,000 in gold.
It was to be converted into a Confederate warship and under the command of Br. Commander A.B. Davidson.
It flashed the Confederate flag in Maffit's Channel and was attacked by the USS Wissahickon and USS America early on the morning of March 19, 1863 and run aground. The gold was supposedly removed. Union troops boarded it and removed some of the cargo. Attempts to refloat her failed and the ship was burned.
Later, the blockade-runners Norseman, Mary Bowers, and Constance Decimer ran into the submerged hull and sank.
Further salvage occurred in the 1870s and more recently artifacts have been recovered from it.
Never Heard of It. --Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
