So What's A Nice Confederate Privateer Doing At Conway Landing, Anyway?

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
PONTOON CONWAY CLOSER.JPG

It's a long way from the deck of pirate ship headed to St. Thomas, a crew in chains and captained by a woman to Conway Landing on the York River. It's what happens when you start poking around in Time. Crazy stuff flakes off. Why Ladies Tea? Hang on.

PONTOON CONWAY SNIP.JPG

Innocuous enough image of supply train, ships and pontoon bridge at Conway Landing, York River. LoC glass negative. Schooners and transport seem to be off loading supplies.

Claiming for this forum under pretty thin margins sure. It's this portion of the ship's story although only a portion- it's still very cool.

etta hero 1.JPG

I can't find her name- give me a day or two. The pirate schooner Retribution shot across headlines for awhile.

etta hero 2.JPG

Out of a colorful past attached to the schooner Retribution, this more than colorful story has to be one of the best.

Then there's this.
etta 1863 pineapples.JPG

Transpires in order to escape both capture and loss of revenue, in St. Thomas the ship underwent a change of name, from " Retribution " to " Etta ". I'm unclear how the information reached port authorities in N.Y., but Etta was seized, put up for auction and we see her in several mentions afterwards. Ship was designated ' unseaworthy ', something denounced in the press as a means by which to sell her cheaply.

Here's why the ship was wanted, and badly!
etta retribution 1863.JPG


By great good fortune we may download these gargantuan tifs from LoC. It's like zooming in on Time, you catch the best stuff. Confederate privateer Retribution/Etta was sold at auction, remained ' Etta ', sailed under a New York owner. No idea how she got there, some contract or other- here she is. After all the high drama in the most exotic career for a ship, now a supply ship ( it seems ) on the York River, 1864. Can find no duplicate names, ' Ella ', ' Etta Thomas ".

pontoon conway landing york river j ETTA.jpg

I know little of ship sizes and thought a 2 masted schooner too small but simply cannot find another registered ' Etta ' anywhere, this out of New York, where the auction was held ( seized in Newark ).

pontoon conway landing york river j leader men.jpg

Transport Leader, looks to be supply barrels visible inside the first doorway, men the second.

pontoon conway landing york river j TOWER.jpg

While we're here at Conway Landing, may as well look around- tifs let us see men in the signal tower.

pontoon conway landing york river j wagon on bridge.jpg

Sorry, it's a pontoon bridge. Had to catch the wagon on it. Love pontoon bridges.

pontoon conway landing york river j wagons.jpg

Supply wagons, although the guy in the boat distracts you from them. He and his suspenders are wonderful.

Still need to know who on earth was the wife handcuffing all those drunks, and taking over that ship.
 
Beautiful pictures! I love the old sailing vessels due I guess to growing up as a Navy brat and fan of Horratio Hornblower!
Regards
David
 
Great Story and Great Job on the photos. Thanks For Sharing.
 
View attachment 217095
It's a long way from the deck of pirate ship headed to St. Thomas, a crew in chains and captained by a woman to Conway Landing on the York River. It's what happens when you start poking around in Time. Crazy stuff flakes off. Why Ladies Tea? Hang on.

View attachment 217093
Innocuous enough image of supply train, ships and pontoon bridge at Conway Landing, York River. LoC glass negative. Schooners and transport seem to be off loading supplies.

Claiming for this forum under pretty thin margins sure. It's this portion of the ship's story although only a portion- it's still very cool.

View attachment 217089
I can't find her name- give me a day or two. The pirate schooner Retribution shot across headlines for awhile.

View attachment 217090
Out of a colorful past attached to the schooner Retribution, this more than colorful story has to be one of the best.

Then there's this.View attachment 217091
Transpires in order to escape both capture and loss of revenue, in St. Thomas the ship underwent a change of name, from " Retribution " to " Etta ". I'm unclear how the information reached port authorities in N.Y., but Etta was seized, put up for auction and we see her in several mentions afterwards. Ship was designated ' unseaworthy ', something denounced in the press as a means by which to sell her cheaply.

Here's why the ship was wanted, and badly!
View attachment 217092

By great good fortune we may download these gargantuan tifs from LoC. It's like zooming in on Time, you catch the best stuff. Confederate privateer Retribution/Etta was sold at auction, remained ' Etta ', sailed under a New York owner. No idea how she got there, some contract or other- here she is. After all the high drama in the most exotic career for a ship, now a supply ship ( it seems ) on the York River, 1864. Can find no duplicate names, ' Ella ', ' Etta Thomas ".

View attachment 217096
I know little of ship sizes and thought a 2 masted schooner too small but simply cannot find another registered ' Etta ' anywhere, this out of New York, where the auction was held ( seized in Newark ).

View attachment 217097
Transport Leader, looks to be supply barrels visible inside the first doorway, men the second.

View attachment 217098
While we're here at Conway Landing, may as well look around- tifs let us see men in the signal tower.

View attachment 217099
Sorry, it's a pontoon bridge. Had to catch the wagon on it. Love pontoon bridges.

View attachment 217100
Supply wagons, although the guy in the boat distracts you from them. He and his suspenders are wonderful.

Still need to know who on earth was the wife handcuffing all those drunks, and taking over that ship.
Why was she carrying cuffs in her trunk???
 
The "A Heroine" account in the OP was reprinted in papers across the country. The New York World of Feb 7, 1863, gives some more detail of the retaking of the J. P. Ellicott, mentioning the Mate's wife being on board, but does not credit her with any agency in taking the vessel:
world.jpg
It may seem strange that Retribution's captain should have put a largely colored prize crew aboard the Ellicott, but he doubtless felt confident that two white officers should have no trouble controlling 4 or 5 blacks (they were not slaves, but free men hired in St. Thomas).

Reports of this incident vary in detail. The earliest reports have the E.P. Ellicott recaptured by her own crew. Later this is corrected by saying it was the prize crew. Still later the Mate's wife's heroism is related, "as this now seems to be true." The story was coming in gradually, as reported by other ships on arrival in US ports. At first none had the full story, but only hearsay.
 
Beautiful pictures! I love the old sailing vessels due I guess to growing up as a Navy brat and fan of Horratio Hornblower!
Regards
David


You just gave me a jolt. Dad read Hornblower alllll his life, re-read them to tatters. I'm still finding copies of some paperback he stuffed somewhere to be handy if he needed something to read. He's why I got smitten by ships ( but am much, much worse at it ), made the trip to Portsmouth with Dad- HMS Victory was there. In the U.K., History is around very corner, you live in it, walk smack into it daily- coming from such a young country, seeing Nelson's flagship nearly did me in.
 
Annie, you're incredible. Yet another great story you've wrung out of LoC photos and newspaper reports!


Kind if undeserved! Have an idea an awful lot of these old treasures have stories. We take photos for a reason, you know? Sure sometimes it'll be because there's a splendid scene or somewhere we wish to remember. These were photographers documenting a war. You just know they did not go to all the effort lugging that camera to a spot, setting it up and getting something documented without some thought- and intent. Why that spot or group or ship?

Some people do crossword puzzles.
 
Wish so much she could be tracked down. Bet it's possible- she deserves a shout out by way of a mariner's memorial in her home port.
If only we had a name to go on! We know the captain's name, but not the mate's.

Hen Frigates: passion and peril, nineteenth-century women at sea, by Joan Druett mentions this incident, but, alas, has no more information than is found in the above posts. The book is an excellent one, though.

What is now the U.S. Virgin Islands was then a Danish colony. There was a newspaper at the time, the "St Thomas Tidende" (with articles in both English and Danish). It would be interesting to see what it might have reported, but there seem to be no online archives.

Most informative would doubtless be any reports sent to Washington by U.S. Consul John T. Edgar. I expect they're in the National Archives somewhere.
 
The Daily Intelligencer (D.C.) of September 5, 1863, gives something of the background of the Retribution:
Daily_National_Intelligencer_1863-09-05_[3].png
At the time of the capture of the J. P. Ellicott, the privateer was in rough shape, indeed:
Evening_Post_1863-03-21_[3].png

[Evening Post (N.Y.), March 21, 1863]​


EDITED TO ADD: I must apologize for the repeated images. I have tried everything to get rid of them, but by some sort of glitch they keep reappearing. Very frustrating.

Daily_National_Intelligencer_1863-09-05_[3].png


Evening_Post_1863-03-21_[3].png
 
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Most informative would doubtless be any reports sent to Washington by U.S. Consul John T. Edgar. I expect they're in the National Archives somewhere.

I was hoping ( a little ) there would be no hope of finding a thing and could stop looking. NOW it seems important to keep it up. Story gets better and better and confirms what I thought- there was a reason this photo was taken in the first place. Someone said " HOLY heck ( or an era expletive ), isn't that the ship that....? ". Which helps confirm another theory- pretty convinced a LOT of these old treasures have more purpose behind them than we think.

Also, why does everyone keep writing fiction and making stuff up for movies when History is littered with stories better than anyone could invent?
 
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