Sir, the vessel might have been capable of all three roles, but we will never know as she was popped on her maiden voyage. But let's look at them in detail...
Blockade Runner.
She was kinda deep drafted compared to her contemporary blockade runners - so great care would have to be taken with where she broke the blockade and when. She did have the speed.
Commerce Raider
Maybe - though some thought she was weakly built; she was shored up to a greater extent than straight-up blockade runners. And to participate in
guerre de course, how many guns does one need to take down unarmed merchant men? The Brits did something similar with their great liners in the early 1900s. HMG paid the liner companies extra to build into the structure of their ships the means to be able to mount naval armament quickly without expending a great deal of yard work in strengthening their hulls if they were needed during war time. And these liners that competed for the
Blue Riband were VERY fast. Please see
Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945 by Richard Osborne, Harry Spong & Tom Grover.
Privateer
Not going to happen. By this time of the war, Privateering was right out.
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission (i.e. the sovereign).
en.wikipedia.org
Privateers operated on a 'for-profit' basis. Without foreign ports to accept and condemn Confederate-captured Union-flagged ships and issue prize money, no profit - no pay. No pay - no crew. No prize money - no return upon investment for the owners. The only other option was to return the vessels to Confederate controlled ports - non-blockade-running built vessels - running the blockade. Not going to happen. And since the USG declared it would abide by the 1856 Declaration of Paris, the international community was more inclined to, (and did), support the USG on this matter as opposed to the recognized belligerent but NOT recognized nation of the Confederate States. Privateering was NOT an option. By this time, any country that caught them, say taking a Union Flagged vessel in what they perceived as their territorial waters or areas of interest, might be hung as pirates.
This vessel could run the blockade under carefully chosen conditions or hunt un-armed merchant men under a CSN designation and a CSS nomenclature. She could NOT take on USN ships that would be sent to hunt her or those that manned the blockade.
GEORGIANA
ScStr:
t. 519 [407 ];
l. 205.6';
b. 25.2';
dph. 14.9';
dr. over 14'
GEORGIANA was a brig-rigged, iron propeller of 120 horsepower and had clipper bow, jib, and two masts, hull and stack painted black. She was built by the Lawrie shipyard at Glasgow-perhaps under subcontract from Lairds of Birkenhead (Liverpool)-and registered at that port in December 1862 as belonging to N. Matheson's Clyde service. The London American took special note of her in its 28 January 1963 edition as a "powerful" steamer and remarked that her officers wore gold lace on their caps, considered a sure indication she was being groomed for a man-o'-war. The U. S. Consul at Tenerife was rightly apprehensive of her as being "evidently a very swift vessel."
Attempting to run into Charleston, S.C., through Maffitt's Channel on 19 March 1865, she was spotted by the yacht AMERICA which quickly brought gunfire from USS WISSAHICKON, crippling GEORGIANA. Capt. A. B. Davidson flashed a white light in token of surrender, thus gaining time to beach his ship in 14 feet of water, three-quarters of a mile offshore and escape on the land side with all hands; this was construed as "the most consummate treachery" by the disappointed blockading crew.
Capt. Thomas Turner, station commodore, reported to Admiral S. F. du Pont that GEORGIANA was evidently "sent into Charleston to receive her officers, to be fitted out as a cruiser there. She had 140 men on board, with an armament of guns and gun carriages in her hold, commanded by a British naval retired officer." There seems to be no reason to dispute his facts or figures.
Lt. Comdr. J. L. Davis, USN commanding WISSAHICKON, decided to set the wreck afire lest guerrilla bands from shore try to salvage her or her cargo: she burned for several days accompanied by large explosions when lots of powder succumbed to the flames.
DANFS
I know, still confusing...
Cheers,
USS ALASKA
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