CSS Sea Bird
CSS Sea Bird was a sidewheel steamer in the Confederate States Navy.
| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name: | CSS Sea Bird |
| Owner: | E. H. Delk |
| Builder: | Benjamin Terry |
| Launched: | 1854 at Keyport, New Jersey |
| Commissioned: | 1861 |
| Homeport: | Norfolk, Virginia |
| Fate: | Rammed and sunk by USS Commodore Perry February 10, 1862 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 202 tons |
| Length: | 133 ft (41 m) |
| Beam: | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
| Decks: | 1 deck |
| Installed power: | 1 low pressure 30" x 84" vertical-beam engine built by Birkbeck, Furnam & Co., NY |
| Propulsion: | Side wheels. |
| Complement: | 42 officers and men |
| Armament: | 1 32-pounder smoothbore cannon, 1 30-pounder rifled cannon |
| Notes: | No mast, round tuck, no figurehead (Information from enrollment #78; December 26, 1860). |
Sea Bird was built at Keyport, New Jersey in 1854, was purchased by North Carolina at Norfolk, Virginia in 1861 and fitted for service with the Confederate States Navy. She was assigned to duty along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts with Lieutenant Patrick McCarrick, CSN, in command. Sea Bird served as the flagship of Confederate Flag Officer William F. Lynch's "Mosquito Fleet" during the hard-fought battles in defense of Roanoke Island on February 7–8, 1862, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on February 10 when she was rammed and sunk by USS Commodore Perry. Her casualties were two killed, four wounded, and the rest captured.
References
W. Craig Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks. Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
External links
