As Fingal
Just as the Fingal was beginning her career as a merchantman, on the other side of the Atlantic, the United States was sinking deeper and deeper into the secession crisis. Soon after the Southern attack upon Fort Sumter plunged the nation into war in mid-April 1861, the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory, sent James Dunwoody Bulloch to England to buy the warships, ordnance, and widely varied supplies needed by the South's fledgling navy. After reaching Liverpool on 4 June, Bulloch—a former naval officer who had resigned his commission as a lieutenant in the United States Navy on 5 October 1854—quickly arranged for the construction of two fast and powerful cruisers to prey upon Union shipping. He also purchased a large quantity of naval supplies. Next—realizing that he must arrange for a steady flow of new funds before he could go much farther with his purchasing program and also prompted by the fact that the materiel of war that he had already acquired would be useless to the Confederate cause as long as it remained in England—decided to buy a steamship, to fill it with the ordnance that he and an agent of the Southern War Department had accumulated, and to sail in her to America.
To carry out this plan, the enterprising Southern naval agent chartered Fingal with an option to buy her upon a moment's notice if circumstances should arise which made such a move seem to be advisable. Under this arrangement, the ship would appear to be a British vessel under the command of a certified English master while she would actually be completely under Bulloch's control. Thus, Fingal would enjoy the protection of neutral English colors; yet, in the event she encountered an overinquisitive but none too powerful Union blockader, the English commanding officer might exercise his power of attorney as the agent of the steamer's owner and sign her over to the Confederate Government. In this way, Fingal, under Bulloch's command, could fight for her freedom without compromising British neutrality.
In an attempt to avoid suspicious eyes, the Southern arms were carried by rail and by the coastal steamer Colletis from the vicinity of London to Greenock, Scotland, where Fingal was moored. When the prospective blockade runner was fully loaded, she got underway on the morning of 10 October; moved down the Firth of Clyde; transited the North Channel; and proceeded south through the Irish Sea to Holyhead, Wales, where Bulloch and other Confederate officials and passengers awaited. On the night of the 14th, as she was slowly rounding the breakwater shielding that port, Fingal suddenly came upon unlighted brig Siccardi, slowly swinging at anchor. Although Fingal barely had steerage way and despite the fact that she quickly reversed her engines, she collided with the dark sailing ship. The steamer's sharp bow pierced Siccardi's starboard quarter, and the brig went down before a boat could be lowered.
While Fingal's boats were carrying out rescue operations, Bulloch and the passengers embarked in the steamer. Bulloch sent a letter ashore to request that Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Co.—Confederate financial agents in England—settle damages with the brig's owners. Then, lest Fingal be held up by an investigation of the accident which might well bring his whole project to naught, Bulloch ordered the steamer to get underway immediately. She headed for the Azores and replenished her water supply at Praia on the island of Terceira. When the ship reached Bermuda on 2 November, she found CSS Nashville in port; and that Confederate side-wheel cruiser supplied her with coal and a pilot familiar with ". . . Savannah and the inlets to the southward . . . ." While Fingal was at Bermuda preparing for a dash to the Confederate coast, the United States consul, suspicious of her purpose, attempted in vain to persuade her crew to leave the ship.
On the afternoon of the 7th, Fingal, cleared for Nassau in the Bahamas, got underway again. Soon after she left port, Bulloch informed the crew that the steamer's real destination was Savannah, Georgia; but he offered to take anyone who objected to the plan to Nassau. However, all agreed to join in the effort to run the Union blockade; and the ship headed for the Georgia coast. Her two 4½-inch rifled guns were then mounted in her forward gangway ports, and her two breech loading 2½-inch boat guns were put in place on her quarterdeck. The weather was clear as she approached the entrance to Wassaw Sound on the night of 11 and 12 November; but, in the wee hours of the morning, a heavy fog settled over the coastal waters and screened the ship from Union eyes, enabling her to slip safely into the Savannah estuary.
The cargo which she brought to the munitions-hungry South consisted of 14,000 Enfield rifles, 1,000,000 cartridges, 2,000,000 percussion caps, 3,000 cavalry sabers, 1,000 short rifles with cutlass bayonets, 1,000 rounds per rifle, her own ordnance, 400 barrels of coarse cannon powder, medical supplies, much military clothing, and a large quantity of cloth for sewing still more uniforms. Recalling the voyage after the war, Bulloch proudly stated that "No single ship ever took into the Confederacy a cargo so entirely composed of military and naval supplies ..." and every bit of it was desperately needed by Southern forces.
While Fingal was discharging her most welcome cargo, Bulloch went to Richmond to confer with Secretary of the Navy Mallory and other Confederate leaders seeking approval of what he had done and what he intended to do. His plans called for him next to return to his ship, to fill her with cotton and naval stores, then to escape through the blockade to sea, and finally to steam on to England.
Bulloch returned to Savannah on 23 November heartened by Mallory's approval of his past performance and of his projected course of action, and he promptly went to work to obtain a cargo of cotton and rosin for Fingal's outward voyage. However, the very next day, the first of a series of events occurred that would keep Fingal in port and ultimately would make her useless to the South.
Optimistic because of his great victory at Port Royal, South Carolina, earlier in the month, Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont—the commanding officer of the newly established South Atlantic Blockading Squadron—ordered a Union naval force to waters off Savannah. On the 24th, in response to Du Font's instructions, Comdr. John Rodgers led a party of Union sailors and marines ashore on Tybee Island, which controlled the mouth of the Savannah River, closing to Fingal that avenue of escape. The next day, Bulloch wrote Mallory reporting this development, explaining that "the only egress left for Fingal is through Warsaw Inlet . . ."and warning that". . . it can scarcely be supposed that the enemy will permit it to remain open many days . . . ."
Yet, despite the urgency of loading the steamer and preparing her for sea, other pressing demands upon Southern railroads delayed the arrival of her coal and cargo. Thus, she was not ready to sail until 20 December; and, by that time, Union blockaders had sealed off Wassaw Sound, ending the steamer's last chance to reach the Atlantic.
Slow to abandon hope that changed conditions might yet enable him to slip out to sea, Bulloch remained on board the steamer until mid-January 1862. Then, yielding to the inevitable and prodded by pressing business abroad, he turned her over to Lt. George T. Sinclair, CSN, so that he might proceed to England independently and resume his duties there.
Under Sinclair, Fingal for a time continued to seek an opportunity to dash out to sea; but this hope was abandoned before spring; and the ship was taken into the Confederate Navy.
Read more about this topic: USS Atlanta (1861)