Colonel Stell, also known as Colonel Stelle and J. D. Stelle, was built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa., and owned by C. and F. A. Gearing of Galveston, Tex. Chartered by the Confederate Government on 30 September 1861 she was employed first on the Trinity River, Tex. On 3 April 1862 the Texas Marine Department chartered her. [See Appendix III]. Cooperating with the Army, she transported military stores and soldiers, and served on picket stations in the Galveston area during 1862-63.
Colonel Stell was accidentally sunk off Pelican Island in Galveston Bay on 10 February 1864. Quickly raised and repaired, she resumed her duties as a cargo ship and transport. In May 1864 she received orders to raise the hollow forged shafts of the wreck USS Westfieldwhich were converted to gun barrels by the hard-pressed Confederate Ordnance Department.
After the Civil War, Colonel Stell was in the possession of the U.S. Treasury Department who sold her on 12 July 1866. She was lost on 21 December 1867.
