USS Frolic (1862)
CSS Advance (later USS Frolic) shortly after her capture by USS Santiago de Cuba in 1864
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Advance |
| Builder: | Caird & Co. (Greenock, Scotland) |
| Launched: | 3 July 1862 |
| Christened: | SS Lord Clyde |
| Acquired: | (USN): 10 Sep 1864 |
| Commissioned: | 28 Oct 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | 31 Oct 1877 |
| Renamed: |
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| Struck: | October 1883 (est.) |
| Homeport: |
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| Captured: |
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| Fate: | Sold, 1 October 1883 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 880 tons |
| Length: | 230 ft (70 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 12 knots |
| Complement: | 107 |
| Armament: |
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USS Advance, the second United States Navy ship to be so named, was later known as the USS Frolic, and was originally the blockade runner CSS Advance captured by the Union Navy during the latter part of the American Civil War. She was purchased by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She also served as dispatch ship and supply vessel when military action eventually slowed down.
Advance – a schooner-rigged, sidewheel steamer built at Greenock, Scotland, by Caird & Co. was launched on 3 July 1862 as the Clyde packet Lord Clyde – was jointly purchased by the state of North Carolina and the firm of Lord, Power & Co. to serve as a blockade runner during the Civil War. She was renamed A. D. Vance (in some sources written as "Advance") in honor of the Governor of North Carolina, Zebulon B. Vance. Lt. John J. Guthrie, CSN, commanded her. She completed more than 20 highly successful voyages and 40 close calls with Union ships standing blockade watches.
Advance was commanded by Capt. Tom Crossan when captured by Santiago de Cuba on 10 September 1864 when she attempted to put to sea from Wilmington, North Carolina. Gov. Vance attributed her capture to use of low grade North Carolina bituminous coal and denounced Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory for giving the stockpile of smokeless anthracite to CSS Tallahassee (a raiding cruiser) so that none was left for Advance to run out of Wilmington safely. Writing on 3 January 1865, Vance complained:
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