J. M. Chapman (privateer)

J. M. Chapman, 90 Ton schooner, was purchased by in 1863, by Asbury Harpending and other California members of the Knights of the Golden Circle in San Francisco to outfit as a Confederate privateer.[1]

The object of Harpending was to raid Pacific Mail Steamship Company ships along the Pacific coast carrying gold and silver shipments to Panama, to capture and carry it back to support the Confederacy. Their attempt was detected and the ship and crew were seized on the night of their intended departure by a boarding party of the USS Cyane, revenue officers and San Francisco police.[2][3]

The ship was lost in December 1864 between between Shoalwater Bay and San Francisco.[4]

References

  1. ^ DANFS Online; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Page 584, APPENDIX II. ANNEX I, PRIVATEERS COMMISSIONED BY THE CONFEDERATE STATES GOVERNMENT
  2. ^ California Military Museum; The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866, The following article is taken from Aurora Hunt's book, The Army of the Pacific; Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866, under the chapter The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866. pp.305-310
  3. ^ John Boessenecker, Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. pg. 135-136
  4. ^ W. Craig Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks, LSU Press, 2008, p.28