Hendrick Hudson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Shipyard: | Greenpoint, New York |
| Launched: | 1859 |
| Names: | Florida, Hendrick Hudson |
| Fate: | wrecked near Havana on November 13, 1867 |
| General Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Length: | 171 feet |
| Beam: | 29'11" |
| Draught: | 9'6" |
| Tonnage: | 460 tons |
| Speed: | 11 knots |
| Armament: | 48",220-pdr |
- This article is about a ship named the Hendrick Hudson. The name is also the Dutch spelling for the English explorer and navigator Henry Hudson.
Hendrick Hudson, a schooner-rigged screw steamer, was a warship during the American Civil War.
[edit] History
She was built as the commercial steamship Florida in 1859 at Greenpoint, N.Y. In January 1862, she was seized by the Confederate government at New Orleans, and was then used on February 19 to run a Federal blockade, carrying cotton to Havana, Cuba. In March, she carried rifles and gunpowder to the Florida panhandle, but in April when she was getting ready to depart with another load of cotton for St. Andrews Bay, she was captured by the Pursuit on April 6, 1862.
She was sent north to Philadelphia for adjudication, where she was purchased by the Navy Department from the Prize Court on September 20, 1862. Converted into a gunboat and renamed Hendrick Hudson, she was commissioned December 30, 1862, at Philadelphia, with Acting Master John E. Giddings commanding.
She then returned to the Gulf of Mexico, as part of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. She sailed to Hampton Roads, arriving January 3, 1863, and from there proceeded to her blockading station off East Pass, St. George's Sound, Florida.
From February until March 1863, Hendrick Hudson worked blockade duty, capturing blockade runners and working to shut off commerce through the multitude of small inlets and passes of the Florida coast.
She remained off St. George's Sound until late August 1863, capturing schooner Margaret February 1 and schooner Teresa on April 16. She then retired to Boston for repairs and refitting, returning to a new station off the mouth of the Suwanee River on December 28.
Resuming her blockading duties, Hendrick Hudson encountered a small schooner off Key West March 21, 1864, and stood toward her. However, the blockade runner, Wild Pigeon, suddenly turned across Hendrick Hudson's bow, and was inadvertently rammed and sunk. None of her assorted cargo could be recovered.
The steamer continued her blockading duties through 1864, spending much of her time in busy Tampa Bay and St. Marks, Florida. A group of her men went ashore on an expedition November 12 and engaged some Confederate soldiers briefly, in one of the many forays ashore by personnel of the East Gulf Squadron.
From February 27 until March 7, 1865, Hendrick Hudson participated in an expedition with Army units in the vicinity of St. Marks, Florida. The steamer helped blockade the river, and some of her crew went ashore with the Army in an attempt to capture Confederate positions.
Following the end of the war, Hendrick Hudson was not retained in the squadron, and was ordered north July 15, 1865. She was decommissioned in Philadelphia on August 8, 1865, and was sold on September 12. She then returned to commercial service as the steamship Hendrick Hudson, until her final journey when she ran into trouble and was wrecked near Havana, on November 13, 1867.
