Cornelius Vanderbilt and his Great Ship "Vanderbilt"...

5fish

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Its seems to be a behind the scenes Cornelius Vanderbilt played in the Civil War and his donation of his ship the Vanderbilt. He sent her into battle after Lincoln ask him how much first...


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A national crisis brought the three together. The Confederate ironclad warship Virginia (known to the North as the Merrimack, after the vessel that provided the Virginia’s hull) had attacked the Union blockade squadron in the waters of Hampton Roads. It sank two wooden frigates and drove a third aground, as cannonballs bounced off its armor, seemingly without effect.

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The next day, the first Union ironclad, the Monitor, had battled the Virginia to a draw. But the crisis continued. If the Monitor were to suffer a simple mechanical breakdown, the fleet would be helpless. Desperate, Stanton had wired Vanderbilt, “For what sum [will you] contract to destroy the Merrimac [sic] or prevent her from coming out from Norfolk—you to sink or destroy her if she gets out? Answer by telegraph, as there is no time to be lost.” Instead, the Commodore had rushed to Washington.

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Lincoln asked Vanderbilt if he could stop the Virginia. Vanderbilt later wrote, “I replied to him that it was my opinion that if the steamship Vanderbilt”—his largest and fastest vessel—“was there properly manned, the Merrimac would not venture to come out; or if she did, that the chances were ten to one that the Vanderbilt could sink and destroy her.” He insisted, “No vessel had been, or could be, made by the rebels that could stand the concussion or stand before the weight of the Vanderbilt.”

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We do not know the tone of Lincoln’s response—only that he asked how much Vanderbilt would charge. The Commodore bridled at the implication that he was one of the “vampires” who profited from the war. He said he would donate the Vanderbilt to the Union navy, provided he could control its preparations for battle. Lincoln replied, “I accept her.” Stanton wrote orders granting Vanderbilt, a private citizen, “full discretion and authority” to use the ship “as you may deem fit.”

You will have to read the link to see if the Vanderbilt made it to battle and later helped hunt down the CSS Alabama...
 

5fish

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Here a little more...


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Searching for the CSS Alabama[edit]
This was not done, however, and Vanderbilt was turned over to the Union Navy on 24 March and fitted with a heavy battery of 15 guns at the New York Navy Yard during the summer of 1862. She left New York on 10 November and—after conducting a brief search for CSS Alabama, the most destructive Confederate commerce raider of the entire war—put into Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 17 January 1863.

Ten days later, Vanderbilt received orders to conduct a much longer and more thorough search for Alabama. This year-long cruise took the vessel to the West Indies, eastern coast of South America, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal.

During the West Indies portion of her deployment, Vanderbilt served as flagship of Commodore Charles Wilkes' Flying Squadron. During the search, Vanderbilt captured the blockade-running British steamer Peterhoff on 25 February, off St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, causing a dispute between the British and Americans as to the disposition of mail carried aboard the steamer. President Abraham Lincoln eventually ordered the mail returned to the British.

Vanderbilt's captures also included the British blockade runner Gertrude, taken off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas on 16 April, and the British bark Saxon, seized at Angra Peguena, Africa, on 30 October. Saxon was suspected of having rendezvoused with and taken cargo off CSS Tuscaloosa earlier. However, pursuing leads as to the whereabouts of Alabama, herself, became increasingly frustrating as Vanderbilt would often arrive at a port only to discover that her quarry had departed only a few hours earlier. She eventually returned to New York City in January 1864 for repairs without ever having sighted the Confederate vessel.
 
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