List of shipwrecks in October 1864

The list of shipwrecks in October 1864 includes all ships sunk, foundered, grounded, or otherwise lost during October 1864.

1 October

List of shipwrecks: 1 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Condor	United Kingdom	American Civil War, Union blockade: Pursued by the screw steamer USS Niphon ( United States Navy), the 285-, 300-, or 446-ton sidewheel paddle steamer, a blockade runner, was deliberately run aground and wrecked off New Inlet on the coast of North Carolina when her pilot mistook the wreck of Night Hawk for a blockading U.S. Navy warship in the darkness. Intense Confederate fire from Fort Fisher prevented Niphon′s crew from destroying Condor. Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow tried to reach shore in one of Condor′s boats, but drowned when the boat overturned in heavy surf.[1][2]

4 October

List of shipwrecks: 4 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Result	Victoria (Australia)	The schooner was wrecked at Sulphur Creek, New Zealand.[3]

6 October

List of shipwrecks: 6 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Constance (or Constance Decima)	United Kingdom	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 140-ton sidewheel paddle steamer, a blockade runner en route from Nova Scotia to Charleston, South Carolina, with a cargo of weapons and possibly gold, was sunk off the coast of South Carolina.[1][4] One account reports her to have been forced aground and sunk off the Isle of Palms by the gunboat USS Wamsutta ( United States Navy);[1] according to another, she struck the wreck of the screw steamer Georgiana ( Confederate States of America) and sank one nautical mile (1.8 km) out from and 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) east of Breach Inlet, between 640 and 680 yards (585 and 622 meters) from the site of the wrecks of Georgiana and the sidewheel paddle steamer Mary Bowers ( United Kingdom).[4]
Henry S. Dickerson	United States	The 57-ton screw steamer exploded on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, killing five people.[5]

7 October

List of shipwrecks: 7 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Annie	Confederate States of America	American Civil War, Union blockade: The steamer, a blockade runner, was run aground at New Inlet, North Carolina, by the armed tug USS Aster ( United States Navy).[1]
USS Aster	United States Navy	American Civil War, Union blockade: The armed tug ran hard aground on the Carolina Shoals near New Inlet off North Carolina. She was set on fire the next day to prevent her capture by Confederate forces, and eventually exploded.[6]

8 October

List of shipwrecks: 8October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
USS Picket Boat No. 2	United States Navy	American Civil War: The torpedo boat ran aground on a sandbar in Great Wicomico Bay, Virginia, while under attack by Confederate guerrillas and was forced to surrender. When the armed steamer USS Commodore Read and the USS Mercury (both  United States Navy) began to shell her, the Confederates scuttled her. Union forces recaptured her wreck on 19 October.[1][7]

9 October

List of shipwrecks: 9 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Roanoke	United States	American Civil War: The mail steamer was burned in the Atlantic Ocean off St. George's, Bermuda, by Confederate agents. The Confederates had seized control of her on 29 September, soon after she departed Havana, Cuba, for a voyage to New York City, and had shot and thrown overboard one member of her crew during the incident.[1][8][9][10]

10 October

List of shipwrecks: 10 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Henry	United Kingdom	Carrying assorted cargo, the brig was wrecked on Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island.[11]
Leighton	United States	The bark was capsized by a tornado in the harbor at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the loss of one life.[12]

16 October

List of shipwrecks: 16 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
J. C. Irwin	United States	The 145-ton sternwheel paddle steamer was wrecked by a boiler explosion with the loss of between eight and 11 lives on the Cumberland River at Big Eddy Towhead in Kentucky, 10 miles (16 km) above Eddyville, Kentucky.[13][14]

19 October

List of shipwrecks: 19 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Cornelia Terry	Unknown	The vessel was lost off the coast of Oregon in Yaquina Bay.[15]
W. I. Maclay	United States	The 245-ton sidewheel paddle steamer struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River below St. Louis, Missouri.[16]

21 October

List of shipwrecks: 21 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
General Ward	United States	The 70-ton screw steamer exploded at Shanghai, China, leaving only one survivor.[17]

22 October

List of shipwrecks: 22 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Flora	United Kingdom	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 437-ton sidewheel paddle steamer, a blockade runner carrying assorted cargo, was run ashore off Charleston, South Carolina, by the gunboats USS Mingoe and USS Wamsutta, the armed tug USS Geranium, and picket launches (all  United States Navy). She was destroyed by gunfire on 23 October by U.S. Navy monitors and Union artillery on Morris Island, taking at least 98 hits.[1][18]

23 October

List of shipwrecks: 23 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Flamingo	Confederate States of America	American Civil War, Union blockade: The 283-, 284-, or 446-ton sidewheel paddle steamer ran aground on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina.[1][19] One source claims she was destroyed there by gunfire from Union artillery at Fort Putnam, Fort Strong, and Battery Chatfield and ships of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron ( United States Navy);[1] another source claims she was refloated, continued to run the Union blockade in 1865, and survived the American Civil War.[19]

26 October

List of shipwrecks: 26 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Kenosha	United States	The 645-ton screw steamer burned at Sarnia, Ontario.[20]
Sophie McLane (or Sophie McLean)	United States	The paddle steamer was sunk by a boiler explosion at Suisun Bay Wharf in California, with 13 people killed or missing. She later was salvaged.[21]

27 October

List of shipwrecks: 27 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
CSS Albemarle	Confederate States Navy	American Civil War: While at anchor in the Roanoke River at Plymouth, North Carolina, the ironclad ram was sunk by a United States Navy launch crew using a spar torpedo. The U.S. Navy later raised her and repaired her hull, but sold her for scrap without placing her in service.[22]
John A. Fisher	United States	The 122-ton sternwheel paddle steamer struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River at Carroll Island below St. Louis, Missouri.[23]

28 October

List of shipwrecks: 28 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Empress	United States	American Civil War: The 854-ton sidewheel paddle steamer was burned on the Mississippi River at Island No. 34 by cavalry under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest ( Confederate States Army). She also is reported to gave struck a snag and broken in two.[24]

29 October

List of shipwrecks: 29 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Alina	United States	American Civil War: The 574-ton bark, carrying a cargo of railway iron to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on her maiden voyage, was captured and scuttled in the North Atlantic Ocean by the merchant raider CSS Shenandoah ( Confederate States Navy).[25][26][27]
Mazeppa	United States	American Civil War: The 184-ton sternwheel paddle steamer, en route from Cincinnati, Ohio, towing two barges carrying flour, shoes, blankets, arms, hardtack, clothing, and other goods, was abandoned on the west bank of the Tennessee River in Tennessee after she suffered damage from Confederate States Army artillery fire while passing Paris Landing. When United States Navy gunboats approached that night, Confederate forces burned her and the two barges 2 miles (3.2 km) above and across from Fort Henry.[28]

30 October

List of shipwrecks: 30 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Anna	United States	American Civil War: Damaged earlier by artillery batteries under the command of Lieutenant general Nathan Bedford Forrest ( Confederate States Army) while passing Paris Landing, Tennessee, on the Tennessee River, the 110-ton sidewheel paddle steamer sank in the Tennessee River before she could reach Paducah, Kentucky.[29]
Universe	United States	The 399-ton sidewheel paddle steamer struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River at Plum Point, Tennessee, with the loss of 17 lives.[27]
Two unidentified barges	United States	The empty barges were captured with the sidewheel paddle steamer Venus ( United States) on the Tennessee River at Paris Landing in Tennessee by Confederate States Army forces. They were destroyed.[30]

31 October

List of shipwrecks: 31 October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Aphrodite	United States	Transporting 510 U.S. Navy recruits from New York City to the blockading squadrons off the coast of the Confederate States of America in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, the chartered 1,098-ton screw steamer ran aground on a shoal in Core Sound on the coast of North Carolina 12 nautical miles (22 km) northeast of Cape Lookout. The armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS Keystone State and USS Shokokon (both  United States Navy) arrived on 4 November and rescued Aphrodite′s passengers and crew and removed her cargo. Aphrodite later bilged and broke in two.[6]
David Hughes	United States Army	American Civil War: Carrying government supplies and towing a barge loaded with stores, the steamer was captured and burned by Confederate guerrillas on the Cumberland River 15 miles (24 km) above Clarksville, Tennessee.[31]
Dunleith	United States	The 155-ton sternwheel paddle steamer struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River at Island No. 67.[32]
Emma L. Hall	United States	American Civil War: The 492-ton bark, carrying a cargo of sugar and molasses from Cárdenas, Cuba, to New York City, was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean off New York within 50 nautical miles (93 km) of her destination by the merchant raider CSS Chickamauga ( Confederate States Navy).[33][1][34]
Shooting Star	United States	American Civil War: The 947-ton full-rigged ship, carrying a cargo of coal, was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean off New York at 39°20′N 70°00′W / 39.333°N 70.000°W / 39.333; -70.000 (Shooting Star) by the merchant raider CSS Chickamauga ( Confederate States Navy).[33][1][35]
Unidentified barge	United States Army	American Civil War: Loaded with stores and under tow by the steamer David Hughes ( United States), the barge was captured and burned by Confederate guerrillas on the Cumberland River 15 miles (24 km) above Clarksville, Tennessee.[36]

Unknown date

List of shipwrecks: Unknown date October 1864

Ship	Country	Description
Amily	United Kingdom	The screw steamer sank in Lake Erie off Long Point, Ontario.[37]
Belle Peoria	United States	The sidewheel paddle steamer ran onto a bar in the Missouri River in the Dakota Territory 5 miles (8 km) above the mouth of the Cheyenne River.[38]
C.S.M.	Confederate States of America	American Civil War: The steamer sank at a wharf in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in mid-October after a collision with the steamer Mary ( Confederate States of America), a guard boat.[39]
West Wind	United States	American Civil War: Disabled by Confederate States Army artillery fire and captured by Confederate forces, the 350-ton sidewheel paddle steamer was burned by the Confederates on the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri, on either 16 or 17 October.[40]
Three unidentified schooners	Confederate States of America	American Civil War: Confederate forces scuttled the schooners as blockships in the Roanoke River in North Carolina.[41]

References