List of shipwrecks in December 1861

The list of shipwrecks in December 1861 includes all ships sunk, foundered, grounded, or otherwise lost during December 1861.

3 December

List of shipwrecks: 3 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Vigilant	United States	American Civil War: During a voyage in ballast from New York City to Sombrero in the West Indies, where her crew intended to collect guano, the 1,100-ton armed full-rigged ship was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles southeast of Bermuda at 29°10′N 57°22′W / 29.167°N 57.367°W / 29.167; -57.367 (Vigilant) by the merchant raider CSS Sumter ( Confederate States Navy).[1][2][3]

5 December

List of shipwrecks: 5 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
USS Phoenix	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The former whaler was scuttled as part of the "Stone Fleet" to form a breakwater off Tybee Island, Georgia.

7 December

List of shipwrecks: 7 December 1862

Ship	Country	Description
Messenger	United States	The 254-ton steamer was stranded on the Ohio River at Rochester, Pennsylvania.[4]

8 December

List of shipwrecks: 8 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
USS Cossack	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 254- or 256-ton bark, a former whaler, was beached at Tybee Island, Georgia, to form a wharf.[5]
Ebenezer Dodge	United States	American Civil War: Sailing from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the Pacific Ocean with a crew of 22, the whaler, a bark, was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean at 30°57′N 051°49′W / 30.950°N 51.817°W / 30.950; -51.817 (Ebenezer Dodge) by the merchant raider CSS Sumter ( Confederate States Navy).[1][2][6]
USS Peter Demill	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The bark was beached at Tybee Island, Georgia, to form a wharf.
USS South America	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The former whaler was beached at Tybee Island, Georgia, to form a wharf.

9 December

List of shipwrecks: 9 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Columbus	United States	The screw steamer was stranded at Punta Remedos, El Salvador.[7]

10 December

List of shipwrecks: 10 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Annie Taylor	United States	The screw steamer was wrecked at Sabine Pass on the Gulf of Mexico coast of the Confederate States of America on the border between Louisiana and Texas.[8]

11 December

List of shipwrecks: 11 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
James Montgomery	United States	The 536-ton sidewheel paddle steamer struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River at Devil's Island near Cape Girardeau, Missouri.[9]

15 December

List of shipwrecks: 15 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Charity	Confederate States of America	American Civil War, Union blockade: Carrying general cargo including coffee, salt, shoes, and sugar, the 128-ton schooner was wrecked at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of North Carolina while being pursued by the screw gunboat USS Stars and Stripes ( United States Navy).[10]
Unidentified schooner	Unknown	American Civil War, Union blockade: Carrying a cargo of coffee, cigars, blankets, shoes, and other goods, the schooner was driven ashore and burned off St. Andrews, Georgia, by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Bienville ( United States Navy).[11]
Unidentified schooner	Unknown	American Civil War, Union blockade: The schooner was destroyed in St. Simons Bay on the coast of Georgia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Alabama ( United States Navy).[12]

17 December

List of shipwrecks: 17 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Oscar	Victoria (Australia)	The steamer was wrecked on a sandbar at the mouth of the New River, New Zealand, while approaching Invercargill. She was on a Port Chalmers to Melbourne run.[13]

19-20 December

List of shipwrecks: 19 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
USS Amazon	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 318- or 319-ton bark, a former whaler filled with 325 short tons (295 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship on 19 or 20 December 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet."[14]
America	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 418-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler, was scuttled as a blockship 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[14]
USS American	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 275 or 329-ton bark, a former whaler loaded with 300 short tons (272 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[14]
USS Archer	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 321-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 300 short tons (272 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship in the main channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[15]
Courier	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 381-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 360 short tons (327 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[14]
Fortune	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 291–, 292-, or 310-ton bark, a former whaler, was scuttled as a blockship off Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[16]
USS Garland	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The vessel was scuttled as a blockship on 19 or 20 December as part of the "Stone Fleet."
USS Herald	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 274-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 240 short tons (218 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship off Morris Island in Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[17]
USS Kensington	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 357- or 400-ton full-rigged ship, loaded with 350 short tons (318 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[18]
USS L. C. Richmond	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 341-, 350-, or 383-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 200 short tons (181 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship about 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[19]
USS Leonidas	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 231- or 320-ton bark, a former whaler loaded with 200 short tons (181 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship about 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[19]
Maria Theresa	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 330-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 320 short tons (290 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship southeast of Morris Island in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[19]
Potomac	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 350- or 356-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler loaded with 350 short tons (318 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[20]
USS Rebecca Sims	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 400-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler also referred to as USS Rebecca Simms and USS Rebecca Ann loaded with 425 short tons (386 metric tons/tonnes) of stone, was scuttled as a blockship in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[21]
Robin Hood	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 395- or 400-ton full-rigged ship was scuttled as a blockship in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[21]
William Lee	United States	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 311-ton full-rigged ship, a former whaler, was scuttled as a blockship in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet" on 19 or 20 December.[22]

20 December

List of shipwrecks: 20 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
USS Tenedos	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 245- or 300-ton bark, a former merchant ship, was scuttled as a blockship in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet."[23]

21 December

List of shipwrecks: 21 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Two unidentified flatboats	Confederate States of America	American Civil War, Union blockade: The flatboats were captured and destroyed on the Rappahannock River in Virginia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Coeur de Lion ( United States Navy).[24]

22 December

List of shipwrecks: 22 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Mary Willis	Confederate States of America	American Civil War, Union blockade: Holed below the waterline by Union artillery fire during a voyage with a cargo of wood, the schooner was run aground on the mudflats at Boyd's Hole on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River.[25]

24 December

List of shipwrecks: 24 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Prince of Wales	United Kingdom	American Civil War, Union blockade: The schooner, a blockade runner with a cargo of salt, fruit, and sundries, was set afire by her crew at the north end of North Island off Georgetown, South Carolina. Boats from the bark USS Gem of the Sea and the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS James Adger (both  United States Navy) captured her, but the boat crews burned her when Confederate rifle fire drove them off.[2][21]

27 December

List of shipwrecks: 27 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
USRC Howell Cobb	United States Revenue Marine	The revenue cutter was wrecked on the coast of Massachusetts at Cape Ann during a gale. Her crew was rescued by the revenue cutter USRC Morris ( United States Revenue Marine).[26][27]

29 December

List of shipwrecks: 29 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
HMS Conqueror	Royal Navy	The wreck of HMS Conqueror, depicted in a 19th-century engraving attributed to George Pechell Mends. The first-rate screw ship-of-the-line was wrecked on Rum Cay in the Bahamas due to a navigational error. All 1,400 people on board survived.

31 December

List of shipwrecks: 31 December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Unidentified gunboat	Confederate States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The gunboat, a former lightvessel, was destroyed in the Atlantic Ocean off Wilmington, North Carolina, by boat crews from the armed screw steamer USS Mount Vernon ( United States Navy).[2]

Unknown date

List of shipwrecks: Unknown date December 1861

Ship	Country	Description
Bianca	United States	Carrying a cargo of wood, the schooner ran aground on the coast of California at Salt Point.[28]
Huon	New Zealand	The schooner was wrecked on a sandbar at the mouth of the Taieri River, New Zealand, sometime prior to 14 December.[29]
USS Lewis	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The full-rigged ship, a former whaler slated for use as a blockship in the "Stone Fleet," ran aground and broke open her bilge near Tybee Island, Georgia.[30]
USS Maria Theresa	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The ship was scuttled as a blockship in Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, about four miles south-southeast of Fort Sumter and three miles east-southeast of the lighthouse on Morris Island as part of the "Stone Fleet."
Pizarro	Confederate States of America	The 419-bulk-ton steamer vanished after departing New Orleans, Louisiana, on 11 December. She probably foundered in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.[12]
USS Robin Hood	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The former East Indiaman was scuttled as a blockship in the main channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet."

References