USS Malvern (1860)
USS Malvern at the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1865
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States of America
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| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1860 |
| Acquired: | 10 December 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 9 February 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | 24 October 1865 |
| Struck: | (est.) 1865 |
| Captured: | At sea by Union forces, April 1863 |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,477 tons |
| Length: | 239 ft 4 in (72.95 m) |
| Beam: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
USS Malvern (eventually renamed Ella and Annie) was a large steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was then used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
Malvern was built in 1860 as William G. Hewes by Harlan and Hollingsworth Co., Wilmington, Delaware, for Charles Morgan’s Southern Steamship Co. She commenced regular service between New York City and New Orleans, Louisiana, 11 January 1861.
As William G. Hewes she was seized 28 April by the Governor of Louisiana and put into service as a Confederate blockade runner, although she was not officially registered as a Confederate steamer until 5 April 1862. Because of her speed, maneuverability, and large cargo capacity Hewes was of far greater value as a blockade running transport than as a gunboat. Few of her contemporaries were able to match the 1,440 bale payload of cotton that she carried to Havana, Cuba, in April.
When Admiral David Farragut captured New Orleans, Louisiana, in April 1862, Hewes shifted her operations from there to Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. She was then renamed Ella and Annie. Under the Importing & Exporting Co. of South Carolina she renewed blockade running to Bermuda in April 1863.
Damage sustained during a hurricane in September necessitated repairs in Bermuda. Ella and Annie departed there 5 November in company with steamer R. E. Lee. The two ships separated off Carolina and Ella and Annie steamed for Wilmington, North Carolina. She was delayed by a storm and intercepted the morning of 8 November by USS Niphon (1863) off New Inlet, North Carolina. Capt. Frank N. Bonneau, CSN, in command of the blockade runner, rammed the northern gunboat in a desperate attempt at evasion. A broadside from Niphon, Acting Master Joseph B. Breck, USN, in command, killed one man in Ella and Annie, riddled her hull, and brought her to.
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