SS Georgiana
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States of America
|
|
| Name: | Georgiana |
| Builder: | Lawrie Shipyard (subcontract with Laird?) |
| Laid down: | 1862 |
| Launched: | 1863 |
| Commissioned: | never commissioned |
| Captured: | run aground to avoid capture by USSs Wissahickon and Housatonic |
| Fate: | scuttled and burned, 19 March 1863 |
| Status: | Shipwreck discovered by E. Lee Spence at 32°46′47″N 79°45′35″W / 32.77972°N 79.75972°W |
| Notes: | Was sunk on maiden voyage before her guns were mounted, described as "most powerful" Confederate cruiser. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | reported as built to be a privateer or cruiser |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 205 ft 6 in (62.64 m) |
| Beam: | 25 ft 2 in (7.67 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 0 in (4.27 m) forward, 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) aft also reported as 1 foot 6 inches (0.46 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 14 feet 9 inches (4.50 m) |
| Propulsion: | steam screw, variously reported 120 to 250 horsepower (89 to 186 kW), and capable of 12 to 17 knots (22 to 31 km/h) |
| Sail plan: | brig |
| Complement: | reported as 140 men |
| Armament: | reported as 2 heavy guns mounted on deck and "pierced for either fourteen or twenty guns" |
| Notes: | iron hull, 3 bulkheads, figurehead of a demi-woman |
The Georgiana was a steamer belonging to the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Reputed to be the "most powerful" cruiser in the Confederate fleet, she was never used in battle. On her maiden voyage from Scotland, where she was built, she encountered Union Navy ships engaged in a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, and was heavily damaged before being scuttled by her captain. The wreck was discovered in 1965 and lies in the shallow waters of Charleston's harbor.
Due to the secrecy surrounding the vessel's construction, loading and sailing, there has been much speculation about her intended role, whether as a cruiser, merchantman, or privateer.
Georgiana was a brig-rigged, iron hulled, propeller steamer of 120 horsepower (89 kW) with a jib and two heavily raked masts, hull and stack painted black. Her clipper bow sported the figurehead of a "demi-woman". Georgiana was reportedly pierced for fourteen guns and could carry more than four hundred tons of cargo. She was built by the Lawrie shipyard at Glasgow - perhaps under subcontract from Lairds of Birkenhead (Liverpool) - and registered at that port in December 1862 as belonging to N. Matheson's Clyde service. The U.S. Consul at Tenerife was rightly apprehensive of her as being "evidently a very swift vessel."
Captain Thomas Turner, station commodore, reported to Admiral S. F. du Pont that Georgiana was evidently "sent into Charleston to receive her officers, to be fitted out as a cruiser there. She had 140 men on board, with an armament of guns and gun carriages in her hold, commanded by a British naval retired officer."
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Wikipedia