CSS Spray
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=CSS Spray.jpg |Ship caption=CSS Spray }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Confederate States |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}} |Ship name=Spray |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=New Albany, Indiana |Ship launched= |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= 1850 |Ship in service=1863-1865 |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured=May 12, 1865 |Ship fate= |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Steam gunboat |Ship type=Tugboat |Ship tonnage=118 |Ship displacement= |Ship tons burthen= |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft={{convert|6.5|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power=70 h.p. |Ship propulsion=1 high pressure steam boiler, side paddle wheels |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed= {{convert|12|kn}} (cruising) |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=2 or 3 light cannons |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
The CSS Spray was a steam-powered, side-paddle wheel tugboat built in New Albany, Indiana originally fitted as a mercantile ship before becoming a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy and used in the St. Marks, Newport, Florida area.
History
=As the civilian ''Spray''=
In 1850, Daniel Ladd, a Newport, Florida cotton and general mercantile businessman, purchased the Spray for $15,000. The Spray operated as far south as Cedar Key, Florida, up the Apalachicola River to Columbus, Georgia, up the Suwannee River and west to New Orleans transporting cotton, naval stores, hides, tobacco, beeswax. It first sailed into St. Marks, Florida in 1850.{{Cite web |url=http://www.laddfamily.com/New%20Port/Wakulla%20Ladds.htm |title=Ladd Family History |access-date=2009-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124042006/http://www.laddfamily.com/New%20Port/Wakulla%20Ladds.htm |archive-date=2009-11-24 |url-status=dead }}
File:USS Mohawk and CSS Spray.jpg in chase of CSS Spray into Mark's river.]]
=As CSS ''Spray''=
As a confederate vessel and refitted, the Spray operated in the vicinity of the naval station at St. Marks during 1863–1865, and was the object of much attention by the Federal forces in that vicinity. On September 12, 1863, the captain of the USS Stars and Stripes reported an unsuccessful attack on the Spray up river on the St. Marks River.
The CSS Spray was said to be the only Confederate States Navy vessel to operate exclusively in Florida waters.
In February 1864, Federal troops in two naval expeditions of 14 ships landed at St. Marks. Their mission was to capture Tallahassee, Florida, Fort Ward, Port Leon, and burn the nuisance gunboat CSS Spray.De Quesada, A. M., A history of Florida forts: Florida's Lonely Outposts, History Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-59629-104-1}}] The mission failed.
March 6, 1865, the crew of Spray participated in the Battle of Natural Bridge with a complement of 25 men.[http://www.joe.com Battle of Natural Bridge]
The Spray{{'}}s fate is specious in that it was reported as burned/scuttled by Confederates on St. Marks River in a few accounts and yet survived into the early 20th century by the accounts of the Ladd family.
=Commanders=
- Lt. Charles W. Hays, CSN (1863){{Cite web |url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~rthompso/cw/allen/app_c.html |title=Muster Roll of the Confederate Steam Boat Spray |access-date=2009-07-16 |archive-date=2010-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501082156/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~rthompso/cw/allen/app_c.html |url-status=dead }}
- Lt. Henry. L. Lewis, CSN (1864).
Henry Lewis was born in Virginia and appointed to the CSN from Virginia. He was formerly a lieutenant with the U.S. Navy. Lewis also commanded the CSS Rappahannock from 1862 to 1863 before taking command of the Spray in 1864.[http://www.lva.virginia.gov/whatwehave/mil/connavy/ship_results.asp?page=8&ship= Library of Virginia, Military Records]
[http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/csn/s.txt Haze Gray: Naval History]
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Gaines, W. Craig, Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks, LSU Press, April 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-8071-3274-6}}
{{1864 shipwrecks}}
{{1865 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spray, CSS}}
Category:Gunboats of the Confederate States Navy
Category:Florida in the American Civil War
Category:Ships built in New Albany, Indiana