Rachel Seaman (Schooner)
1861-1865
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Schooner: tonnage 303; length 115'; beam 30'; depth of hold 9'10"; draft 9'; armament 2 32-pounders)
Rachel Seaman, a wooden schooner purchased by the Navy at Philadelphia, Penna., on 21 September 1861, was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 November 1861, Acting Master Quincey A. Hooper in command.
The schooner sailed for the Gulf of Mexico between 4 and 10 November 1861 and reported to Flag Officer William W. McKean off Fort Pickens, Florida, on the 29th for duty in the Gulf Blockading Squadron. After briefly serving in Mississippi Sound and the Mississippi passes, Rachel Seaman arrived off Galveston, Texas, on 30 December and began patrolling the Texas coast.
On 11 January 1862, in concert with the gunboat Midnight, Rachel Seaman shelled Confederate batteries at Pass Cavallo and a week later engaged Confederate cannon at Velasco. In the summer of 1862, she performed blockade duty off Mobile Bay, Alabama, but in September returned to the Texas coast. On the 25th, with the armed steamer Kensington and mortar schooner Henry Janes, she bombarded Sabine Pass, Texas, forcing the Confederate garrison to spike their guns and abandon the works there. The next day, landing parties took possession of the fort.
Want of occupation troops, however, prevented the Union from holding the area. On 6 October 1862, Rachel Seaman captured the British schooner Dart attempting to run the blockade at Sabine Pass. On 15 October, boat crews from Rachel Seaman and Kensington destroyed a railroad bridge at Taylor’s Bayou, Texas, preventing Confederate reinforcement of Sabine Pass with heavy guns. They also burned schooners Stonewall and Lone Star and Southern barracks.
Rachel Seaman took schooner Nymph off Pass Cavallo, Texas, on 21 April 1863. Almost a year later, while steaming east en route north, on 13 April 1864, she captured her last prize, the British schooner Maria Alfred, off the Mermentau River, La. The schooner arrived at New York on 21 May and for the remainder of the Civil War served as a supply ship along the Atlantic coast.
Decommissioned at New York on 22 May 1865, Rachel Seaman was sold at public auction there on 30 May 1865 to a Mr. Wiggins.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
20 October 2020
