CSS Rob Roy
CSS Rob Roy
History
Confederate States
NameRob Roy
In service1862
Out of service2 March 1865
General characteristics
TypeCenterboard schooner
Length78 ft (24 m)
Beam22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Draft
  • 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) with centerboard up
  • 13 ft (4.0 m) with centerboard down
Depth of hold6 ft (1.8 m)
Sail planSchooner
Complement8

CSS Rob Roy was a Confederate blockade runner commanded by Captain William Watson, that ran to and from Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cuba from 1862 to 1864, during the American Civil War.

Watson, who had immigrated from Great Britain several years before, had originally enlisted in the Confederate Army as a sergeant before being wounded at the Second Battle of Corinth,[1] and discharged due to his injuries. Hiring out a schooner, commissioned as Rob Roy, Williams would bring desperately needed supplies into blockaded southern ports, specifically Galveston, Texas before selling the ship after financial disagreements with business associates. She was finally chased ashore and run aground by the Union vessel Fox and the USS Stars and Stripes on 2 March 1865 at Deadmans Bay where her crew set her on fire. Williams would later write about his wartime naval career in an autobiography The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner in 1892.[2]

Citations

  1. Hall, Andy (30 August 2010). "William Watson". Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  2. "CSS Rob Roy (+1865)". Wrecksite. Retrieved 26 May 2020.

References

  • Linedecker, Clifford L., ed. (2002). Civil War, A-Z: The Complete Handbook of America's Bloodiest Conflict. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-89141-878-4.

Further reading

  • Watson, William (2001). The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner. Texas A & M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-152-X.


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