Stormy Petrel was one of two identical sisters built by William Simmons at the Renfrew "London Works" yard on the Clyde, the other being the Mary Bowers, both ships were purpose built blockade runners 222 feet long powered by 180 HP oscillating engines with two funnels mounted aft of their paddle boxes. The Stormy Petrel was registered to John T Lawrence the owner of the Anglo Confederate Trading Company of Liverpool in August 1864 and on the 21st August captain McBride took the her downriver to Greenock to conduct sea trials where she ran the lights at the mouth of the river making an impressive 16 knots . Two days later McBride left the Firth of Clyde and sailed her South to Cardiff, the 360 nautical mile voyage taking a comfortable 33 hours . When she arrived in port captain Gordon took over command and she was loaded with a cargo of good quality coal from the South Wales coalfields that likely contained a quantity of smokeless anthracite coal. The next day she sailed for Madeira arriving there on the 30th August where she topped up her coal supply and set off for Bermuda the following day. When Stormy Petrel arrived in Bermuda on the 1st September the islands were still recovering from a deadly bout of yellow fever that had virtually brought the blockade running trade to a halt, most blockade runners arriving at this time simply refuelled and went onto Halifax to avoid contagion, however for some reason captain Gordon remained in port for two weeks before leaving to run the blockade into Wilmington on the 27th September. It appears that the run into Wilmington was not successful as she arrived in Nassau around the 3rd September without entering a blockaded port. In late October, probably around the 18th, she left Nassau to run into Wilmington arriving off the North Carolina coast around the 21st October where she again failed to enter, instead of returning to Nassau she went on to Bermuda, arriving there on the 24th. Captain Gordon remained in Bermuda for nine days before leaving on the next moon cycle that occurred on the 2nd November only to return in distress the following day. It later transpired that one of Stormy Petrel's boilers had exploded, killing or injuring several firemen according to a report made by the US Nassau consul who gained this intelligence from the Wild Rover, a blockade runner commanded by captain Stuart at the time. It is likely that the boiler explosion took place on this voyage because she returned in distress on the 3rd November and remained in port until the 8th November when captain Gordon left port to sail to Nassau using only one boiler. We know that this was not a run as a full moon was expected only a few days later on the 13th November. On the 10th November the Union warship USS Keystone State commanded by Lieutenant Rollando was on a thirteen day cruise off shore when she spotted a blockade runner heading South West and closed to within 6 miles of the runner, Rollando noticed that when the ship spotted the cruiser and put on speed, smoke only came out of one of her two funnels confirming it was the Stormy Petrel that he had seen. Keystone State was not a crack blockader as she could only manage ten and a half knots but she doggedly chased her quarry for 90 miles before losing sight of her, captain Rollando later reported that Stormy Petrel's speed was estimated at 13 knots which was impressive considering she was loaded with 498 packages and was only running on a single boiler. Stormy Petrel arrived in Nassau around the 12th November and to compound her misfortunes she was reported as arriving in a leaking condition. On his arrival in Nassau captain Gordon relinquished the command of Stormy Petrel to a captain Donaly as it appears that the decision had been made by the owners to continue operating her using one boiler, I am assuming this for the following reasons
- There appears to be no significant break in her operations that would have been needed to carry out such a repair.
- The only place available for complex boiler repairs was Halifax.
- She took 4 days to complete a 3 day voyage to Wilmington in December
- Captain Gordon had probably given up command due to her low 13 knot speed
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