dosplatanus
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- Joined
- Feb 16, 2025
This is my first post on CivilWarTalk Forum. Although I have a long standing interest in the civil war I joined the forum for a very specific reason and a research project I am working on at present. The project is the blockade runner 'Hope' a ship, which perhaps like me, many of you will never have heard of until now. The 'Hope' was commissioned by the Confederate government agents in the UK during 1863, launched in Liverpool in 1864. It was especially built as a blockade runner and was never, as far as my research has taken me at the moment, armed. So how much do I know so far. This from the www.history.navy.mil website:
'Hope was a "very large" and "very strong" Wilmington, N. C., iron and steel paddle wheeler, called the "finest and fastest steamer in the trade" by one observer in Britain. She was procured there for the Confederate Government shortly before or after she left the Liverpool yard of Jones, Quiggin & Co. She was Hull No. 159, sister to the noted Colonel Lamb (q.v.), which she resembled except for the presence of the usual turtleback forward.
The name Hope was already well known from a recent blockade-runner. She could carry over 1,800 cotton bales on a draft of only 11 feet and possessed the safety factor of five watertight compartments-highly unusual in her day. She first appeared in U.S. consular dispatches 10 July as consigned to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., the Confederate Government "front" in Liverpool. USS Sacramento hurried over from Cork to Falmouth to try to capture Hope at sea but she reached Nassau unscatched early in August, having avoided Bermuda because of yellow fever raging there that summer.
Two fore-and-aft engines of 350 nominal horsepower, supplied by 4 boilers, gave Hope power to outrun most of her contemporaries. Yet she was cornered on 22 October 1864 by USS Eolus, trying to enter Cape Fear River; the loss of her cargo and particularly her mail bags was a blow to the Confederacy. A week later she was sighted near New York bound to Boston for adjudication, under a prize master.
An excellent model of Hope is on permanent display at Mariners Museum, Newport News, Va.'
I have looked at the exhibits listed in the Mariners Museum, Newport but the 'Hope' is not listed as being on display. I have yet to email the Curator to enquire why it is not listed. Before I do this maybe another CWT member will have the answer.
The site: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b15391/ has a wood-block illustration of the capture of the 'Hope' flying the battle flag of the Confederacy which as far as I know it never did and was a never a flag officially adopted by the Confederacy but this maybe was just artistic licence. It always flew the national flag as its ensign; at this time 'The Stainless Banner' as it was a merchant vessel and not armed. As the picture attached which spurred my interest in the ship shows; this was by and British artist but this print was actually published in Norway.
I am at the moment particularly interested in the in the name of the ship's master, where it was crewed from (I suspect Liverpool as was the Shenandoah the last ship to fly the Confederate flag after its epic final voyage from the Pacific to Liverpool), what happened at the prize court, what happened to the crew, who bought the ship and its subsequent career etc.
The 'Hope' was a fine looking ship and deserves better recognition. I discovered a book of its detailed design (available from Sea Watch books) although its career as a blockade runner was very short. Any additional information about the ship would be helpful.
'Hope was a "very large" and "very strong" Wilmington, N. C., iron and steel paddle wheeler, called the "finest and fastest steamer in the trade" by one observer in Britain. She was procured there for the Confederate Government shortly before or after she left the Liverpool yard of Jones, Quiggin & Co. She was Hull No. 159, sister to the noted Colonel Lamb (q.v.), which she resembled except for the presence of the usual turtleback forward.
The name Hope was already well known from a recent blockade-runner. She could carry over 1,800 cotton bales on a draft of only 11 feet and possessed the safety factor of five watertight compartments-highly unusual in her day. She first appeared in U.S. consular dispatches 10 July as consigned to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., the Confederate Government "front" in Liverpool. USS Sacramento hurried over from Cork to Falmouth to try to capture Hope at sea but she reached Nassau unscatched early in August, having avoided Bermuda because of yellow fever raging there that summer.
Two fore-and-aft engines of 350 nominal horsepower, supplied by 4 boilers, gave Hope power to outrun most of her contemporaries. Yet she was cornered on 22 October 1864 by USS Eolus, trying to enter Cape Fear River; the loss of her cargo and particularly her mail bags was a blow to the Confederacy. A week later she was sighted near New York bound to Boston for adjudication, under a prize master.
An excellent model of Hope is on permanent display at Mariners Museum, Newport News, Va.'
I have looked at the exhibits listed in the Mariners Museum, Newport but the 'Hope' is not listed as being on display. I have yet to email the Curator to enquire why it is not listed. Before I do this maybe another CWT member will have the answer.
The site: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b15391/ has a wood-block illustration of the capture of the 'Hope' flying the battle flag of the Confederacy which as far as I know it never did and was a never a flag officially adopted by the Confederacy but this maybe was just artistic licence. It always flew the national flag as its ensign; at this time 'The Stainless Banner' as it was a merchant vessel and not armed. As the picture attached which spurred my interest in the ship shows; this was by and British artist but this print was actually published in Norway.
I am at the moment particularly interested in the in the name of the ship's master, where it was crewed from (I suspect Liverpool as was the Shenandoah the last ship to fly the Confederate flag after its epic final voyage from the Pacific to Liverpool), what happened at the prize court, what happened to the crew, who bought the ship and its subsequent career etc.
The 'Hope' was a fine looking ship and deserves better recognition. I discovered a book of its detailed design (available from Sea Watch books) although its career as a blockade runner was very short. Any additional information about the ship would be helpful.
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