An alternate spelling of Suwannee, a river which rises in Ware County in southeastern Georgia and flows southwest across Florida to empty into the Gulf of Mexico at Suwannee Sound.
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The first Suwanee, a double-ended, iron-hulled, side-wheel gunboat built at Chester, Pa., was launched on 13 March 1864, and was commissioned on 23 January 1865, Comdr. Paul Shirley in command.
Ordered to the Pacific, the new double-ender departed Philadelphia at dawn on 17 February 1865 and proceeded via New York down the Atlantic coast of the Americas looking for Confederate commerce raiders, especially for CSS Shenandoah, which had been plaguing Northern shipping. She then steamed up the Pacific coast and arrived at Acanulco, Mexico, where she joined the Pacific Squadron on 30 July. The side-wheeler was promptly ordered to sea in quest of Shenandoah.
After the Southern cruiser surrendered at Liverpool, England, late in the year, Suwanee cruised along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Canada. On 9 July 1868, she was wrecked in Shadwell Passage, Queen Charlotte Sound, British Columbia.
01 February 2006
