Estrella was a paddle steamship built by Samuda Brothers in London in 1853 for the Magdalena Steam Navigation Company's commercial services in present-day Colombia. In 1862 she was sold to United States owners and briefly used as a Union Army transport before being acquired by the Union Navy. She served as the armed steamship USS Estrella during the remainder of the American Civil War, carrying three heavy guns as well as two howitzers for shore bombardment.
Returning to commercial service in 1867, Estrella operated under the American flag and, later, as the British-flag Twinkling Star on services within the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico area. She was seriously damaged in 1870 in Jamaica and later sank in port.
Construction
The iron side-wheel paddle steamer Estrella was launched by Samuda Brothers at Blackwall, London on the River Thames on 20 August 1853 for the newly-established Magdalena Steam Navigation Company. She was designed with shallow draught of 5ft (2m), suitable for her intended river and coastal transport, and was approximately 176ft (54m) in length, with a beam of 26ft (8m) and tonnage of 576GRT. In later United States Navy service she was 438 tons displacement. Estrella had capacity for 60–90 passengers[1][2][3] The ship was powered by a two-cylinder oscillating steam engine with an output of 120 nominal horse-power manufactured by Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes at their new engineworks at Deptford.[2] On her official trials on 27 October she averaged 12 miles per hour. Two smaller vessels were also built and engined for the company by the same shipbuilder and engineers, Anita and Isabel, intended for the passenger trade on the Magdalena River in the Republic of New Granada (now in Colombia).[4]
Commercial service
Estrella and Anita sailed from the Thames together on 20 November 1853 and the former arrived at Savanilla, then the main seaport at the mouth of the Magdalena, on 17 January 1854 (Anita a week later) to be prepared for service.[4][5] The timing was unfortunate, as revolution had broken out in Bogota, suppressing the demand for river freight.[3] Nevertheless Estrella made a profitable voyage from Santa Marta to Mompox and Magangué, and a little later was chartered to General Mosquera to carry imported munitions up river.[5][6] On 1 August 1855 she sank in the river Magdalena near Conejo en route to Honda after being holed by a rock; her passengers and crew were saved, and the ship was reported at Lloyd's of London as lost,[7] but in the event refloated and repaired.
In May 1856, the Magdalena Steam Navigation Company concluded that the venture was not sufficiently profitable and should be wound up, for which they intended their three vessels, Estrella, Anita and Isabel, which had been operating under the British flag, should be returned to England for sale.[8][9] However, the company first sought purchasers at Barranquilla in September, with bids to be received by 15 November.[10] Remaining unsold, Estrella and Anita sailed for England on 23 December, but after only two hours steaming Anita developed a serious leak and began sinking in an increasing gale. Some three hours later the boiler of Anita exploded and she sank in deep water, with the loss of half of her crew of 24. Estrella, also hampered by the conditions, was unable to assist the other ship and decided to put back to Santa Marta where she was surveyed at the British Vice-Consul's behest. It was found that Estrella's deck was hogged, probably as a result the earlier sinking and numerous groundings in the Magdalena, and that she was not seaworthy; in addition, the ship's boats were condemned as "entirely worthless". The surveyors advised that she should not leave the coast before the end of May 1857, when weather could be expected to have improved, and that she should carry additional engineers.[9]
In December 1861 Estrella was still in New Granada and provided safe haven for some residents of Santa Marta during the Colombian Civil War.[11] In 1862 the ship was purchased at Savanilla by the firm McLean & Lintz of New York, where she arrived on 28 May after a nine-day voyage in ballast via Kingston, Jamaica; during the voyage she struck a wreck which damaged the starboard paddle wheel and she completed the voyage using only one.[12][13][lower-alpha 1] She was then documented at New York as an American ship and chartered by McLean & Lintz to the US Army Quartermaster Department as United States Transport Estrella from 7 July 1862 at US$400 per day.[15][16]
Estrella was transferred from the Army to the Navy late in 1862, and commissioned before the end of October, Lieutenant Commander A. P. Cooke in command. She was armed with three heavy guns – two 32-pounders and one 30-pounder with rifled barrel – and with two 24-pounder howitzers, proving versatile and useful in both stopping blockade runners at sea and at bombarding shore positions.
Four days later, Cooke led his flotilla up the Atchafalaya once more, to attack the batteries at Butte-a-la-Rose, Louisiana. The batteries were captured intact, with their garrison of 60 men and large supplies of ammunition and commissary stores. A Union Army garrison was at once sent up to hold the town, another key point won by the Union Navy in its continuing campaign to take complete control of coastal areas. From 3 to 6 May 1863, Estrella sailed up the Red River to join in the attack on Fort De Russy, and during June and July participated in the attacks on Port Hudson, Louisiana which led to its fall on 9 July. Many, if not most, of the Estrella sailors who perished during these attacks, including an Acting Master transferred from the Kensington, were later interred at Chalmette National Cemetery. Union naval veterans who lost fathers, brothers, and even fathers-in-law aboard Estrella, frequently returned to Chalmette in denominational rituals of remembrance. Widows, sisters, and daughters completed physical and psychological family sojourns, capitalized on gilded pensions, and corresponded on the cultural memory of corpses, death, and life aboard Estrella. These women most forcefully invoked religiosity in enacting the limits of reconciliation.[17] Other events in her active service included the capture of schoonerJulia A. Hodges in Matagorda Bay, Texas, on 6 April 1864 and a leading role in the attacks on Fort Powell in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. These attacks were made in coordination with the battle of Mobile Bay.
After being repaired at New Orleans in the first 4 months of 1865, Estrella served as flagship of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, continuing to cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and its tributary waters until 30 June 1867, when she sailed for New York Navy Yard. Estrella was decommissioned there on 16 July 1867, and sold 9 October 1867.
Return to commercial service
According to American Lloyd's Register of 1868, Estrella was re-purchased from the Navy, as the entry is based on a December 1867 survey in New York,[14] and in 1868 she was transferred to Henry Winn, secretary of the Intertropical Company, New York.[18][19][20] In March 1868 Estrella was described as an "American" steamer when reported condemned at Kingston, Jamaica,[21] but in the same year was owned by Lamb & Co of Saint Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies, when seeking parity of treatment in Venezuelan ports with British ships.[22] On 21 December 1868 the "intercolonial packet sateamer" Estrella was reported wrecked in the Los Roques archipelago on a voyage from Saint Thomas to La Guaira, Puerto Cabello and Curacao, with passengers, mail and general cargo. The passengers and crew survived for five days on an uninhabited island and were rescued on 27 December by the Venezuelan war steamer Bolivar.[23]
After being salved she was taken to Jamaica and was registered on 4 October 1869 as a British ship at the port of Kingston under the ownership of a local, Ralph Nirnes. Renamed Twinkling Star, she was given Official Number 61881, and remeasured at 492 GRT, 334 NRT and dimensions 179.7ft (54.8m) in length, beam 25.2ft (7.7m) and depth 11.1ft (3.4m).[24] Soon afterwards, on 27 November, on voyage from Cap-Haïtien to Port au Prince, Twinkling Star developed an underwater crack below the waterline and began to take water; amid general panic, five passengers, including the American Consul in Jamaica, took to a boat and reached Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti. The ship was later also safely brought to port[25]
A year later, on 30 November 1870, Twinkling Star sailed from Kingston for New Orleans but met very bad weather and was forced to put in to Savanna-la-Mar with boiler damage, leaking hull, sails blown away and a ship's boat stove in; and then in arriving went aground, requiring some of the cargo to be jettisoned.[26][27][28] By 24 December she had been surveyed, condemned and ordered to be sold [29] She remained on moorings at Savanna-la-Mar until 21 May 1873 when she sank in 10ft water [30]
↑ American Lloyd's Register describes the ship erroneously as "propeller" rather than "side-wheel", though correct in the 1868 edition.[14]
Related Research Articles
Nimrod was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing ship with auxiliary steam engine that was built in Scotland in 1867 as a whaler. She was the ship with which Ernest Shackleton made his Nimrod Expedition to Antarctica in 1908–09. After the expedition she returned to commercial service, and in 1919 she was wrecked in the North Sea with the loss of ten members of her crew.
Princess Royal was a British merchant ship and blockade runner that became a cruiser in the Union Navy during the American Civil War and later returned to civilian service.
CSS Sumter, converted from the 1859-built merchant steamer Habana, was the first steam cruiser of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She operated as a commerce raider in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic Ocean against Union merchant shipping between July and December 1861, taking eighteen prizes, but was trapped in Gibraltar by Union Navy warships. Decommissioned, she was sold in 1862 to the British office of a Confederate merchant and renamed Gibraltar, successfully running the Union blockade in 1863 and surviving the war.
USS Santiago de Cuba was a side-wheel steamship acquired by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat with powerful 20-pounder rifled guns and 32-pounder cannon and was assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. She was notably successful in this role, capturing several blockade runners. Her last major action of the war was the assault on Fort Fisher, during which seven of her crew won the Medal of Honor.
The second USS Memphis was a 7-gun screw steamer, built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1861, which briefly served as a Confederate blockade runner before being captured and taken into the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was destroyed by fire in 1883.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.
The first USS Gettysburg was a steamer in the United States Navy. The ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1858, named RMS Douglas, and operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in the United Kingdom between Liverpool, England, and Douglas on the Isle of Man until November 1862. She was then sold to Cunard, Wilson & Company on behalf of the Confederate agents Fraser, Trenholm & Company for use by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Renamed Margaret and Jessie, she operated as a blockade runner until her capture by the Union on 5 November 1863. The ship then was commissioned into the Union Navy on 2 May 1864 as USS Gettysburg.
The passenger-cargo steamer Fah-Kee was launched in 1862 at Greenpoint, Brooklyn and operated on the United States coast until purchased in July 1863 by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The Navy used USS Fahkee as a collier and freight supply ship assigned to assist Union Navy ships patrolling Confederate waterways.
USS New Berne was a wooden-hulled, propeller-driven steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
SS Statendam was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in Ireland in 1898 for Holland America Line. She was the first of several ships in the company's history to be called Statendam. She was NASM's first ship of more than 10,000 GRT, and she was the largest ship in the company's fleet until Potsdam was completed in 1900.
RMS Magdalena was a British steamship that was built in 1889 as a Royal Mail Ship and ocean liner for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. In the First World War she served as the troop ship HMT Magdalena. After a long and successful civilian and military career she was scrapped in 1923.
Commodore John R. Goldsborough was an officer in the United States Navy. Goldsborough was made a cadet-midshipman in 1824 and as such saw action in the Mediterranean against pirates. In one incident, while in charge of 18 men he attacked and captured a Greek pirate ship with a 58-man crew.
Commodore Jonathan Young was an officer in the United States Navy. He participated in anti-piracy actions and the African Slave Trade Patrol, fought in the Mexican War, Puget Sound War, and American Civil War, and served briefly as commander of the Asiatic Squadron.
The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-monopoly which it maintained by buying out or bankrupting new competitors. In response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush and economic growth in the Pacific Northwest, the company expanded to ocean routes from San Francisco north to British Columbia. Similarly, as California's economy grew, the company offered service from San Francisco south to San Pedro and San Diego. It exited these markets in 1867 when competition drove prices to unprofitable levels. While the California Steam Navigation Company was successful throughout its life in suppressing steamboat competition on its core Bay Area and river routes, it could not control the rise of railroads. These new competitors reduced the company's revenue and profit. Finally, in 1871, the company's assets were purchased by the California Pacific Railroad, and the corporation was dissolved.
SS Pennland was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched as Pittsburgh in Ireland in 1920 and renamed Pennland in 1926. She had a succession of UK, German and Dutch owners and operators. In 1940 she was converted into a troopship.
Portsea was launched at Calcutta in 1807. She was a country ship; that is, she primarily traded east of the Cape of Good Hope. She participated as a transport in the British invasion of Mauritius. She then carried French prisoners of war to France. She also made one voyage to St Helena from Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). In 1814 a storm dismasted her and she was lengthened, but it is not clear whether before or after the dismasting. She made two voyages as a South Seas whaler between 1828 and 1835. In 1838 she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales. She carried coal to Valparaiso in 1840 and there her owners turned her into a coal hulk. Her final fate is not known.
SS Baltimore was an iron passenger steamship of the North German Lloyd line, built by Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland in 1867. She was used for most of her career to bring German immigrants to Baltimore.
SS Reliance was one of a pair of transatlantic steam ocean liners that were launched in 1914 in Germany for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), sold to a Dutch shipping line in 1916, and seized by the United States as World War I reparations in 1922. United American Lines (UAL) operated her until 1926, when HAPAG bought her back.
SS Lombardia was one of a pair of transatlantic steam ocean liners that were launched in 1914 in Germany for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), sold to a Dutch shipping line in 1916, and seized by the United States as World War I reparations in 1922. United American Lines (UAL) operated her until 1926, when HAPAG bought her back.
SS Byron was a transatlantic ocean liner that was built in England in 1914 and scrapped in Italy in 1937. She was launched as Vasilefs Constantinos, named after Constantine I of Greece. In 1919 she was renamed Megali Hellas, the Greek name for the Ancient Greek settlements in Sicily and southern Italy. In 1923 she was renamed Byron, in recognition of the role of Lord Byron (1788–1824) in the Greek War of Independence (1821–29).
References
↑ "Launch". The Globe. No.17, 197. London. 23 August 1853. p.1. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
↑ Janney, Caroline E. (2013). Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. pp.232–65. ISBN9781469607061.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom
United States
