CSS Fingal  "A Great Run For The Confederacy"

Confederate agent in London James D. Bulloch received a dispatch from Richmond in the summer of 1861 stating that the Confederacy needed to outfit 500,000 new forces, and that agents in England were to purchase the arms and supplies. Disturbed by the outrageous rates charged to ship goods through the blockade, Bulloch went to Greenock, Scotland, where he used Confederate government funds to purchase the Fingal, an iron-hulled screw steamer. Clandestine measures were taken to obscure the Fingal's true ownership, mission, and cargo. Loaded with more than 11,000 rifles, as well as pistols, swords, sabers, ammunition, four cannon, seven tons of shell, leather, medicines, seamen's clothing, blankets and more, the ship quietly slipped out of Greenock on the night of October 11, 1861.

On arriving in Bermuda on November 2, the Fingal took on a pilot who knew Savannah's inlets, but it was not until the ship left Bermuda on November 7 that her crew was informed of their destination; gamely, they agreed to defend the ship if necessary against blockaders. Eluding detection in the dense fog off the Georgia coast, the Fingal slipped through the blockade and delivered her goods in Savannah on November 14, 1861. The ship's arrival gave the Fingal the distinction of having brought into the Confederacy the largest, single-trip delivery composed entirely of naval and military materiel.

Reloaded with Confederate cotton, the CSS Fingal was kept inland by the constant presence of Union blockaders. She was converted into an ironclad and renamed the CSS Atlanta, and in late May 1863 she steamed downriver only to get stuck on a mud bank because of her weight and deep hull. Refloated and repaired, the Atlanta left on June 17 to attack a fleet of Union monitors. The awkward ironclad ran aground three times before the monitor USS Weehawken blasted the stranded ship at close range. The Atlanta surrendered, was taken as a prize, and assigned to the Union fleet.

Fascinating Fact:  When leaving Scotland at night, the Fingal accidentally struck and sank an Austrian brig loaded with coal. The Fingal steamed on to avoid the authorities, but the Confederate government later compensated the owners of the brig for their loss.


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