Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Tags
Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Ship History
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials
Adventure
(ScStr: t. 972; l. 250'; b. 28'; dph. 15'6")

Adventure and Enterprise were the larger pair of vessels which Confederate oversea agent James D. Bulloch, CSN, writing from Liverpool, 15 November 1864, reported to Secretary Mallory as ". . . the four steamers I am now building for the Navy Department specially, which are progressing very favorably." Having run the blockade into a Confederate port, they were quickly to become cruisers "fully able to repeat the operations of the Tallahassee." Mallory told Bulloch to choose any common name for her to run the blockade; her permanent name was to be Waccamaw.

But, "upon the eve of events fraught with the fate of the Confederacy," Mallory was forced to advise Bulloch, 1 March 1865: "You will have to dispose of the other two steamers as best you can for the public interests, and send us two light-draft, handy vessels instead of them- With light-draft vessels we could at once place cotton abroad."

They were to be iron hulls, twin-screw, and each to be driven by two pairs of 130-hp. disconnected engines. [cf. Ajax and Hercules, infra.]