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CSS Sea Bird

Coordinates: 36°17′07″N 76°10′30″W / 36.285242°N 76.175079°W / 36.285242; -76.175079
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Destruction of Commodore Lynch's fleet
History
Confederate States
NameCSS Sea Bird
OwnerE. H. Delk
BuilderBenjamin Terry
Launched1854 at Keyport, New Jersey
Commissioned1861
HomeportNorfolk, Virginia
FateRammed and sunk by USS Commodore Perry February 10, 1862
General characteristics
Displacement202 tons
Length133 ft (41 m)
Beam21 ft (6.4 m)
Depth of hold7 ft (2.1 m)
Decks1 deck
Installed power1 low pressure 30" x 84" vertical-beam engine built by Birkbeck, Furnam & Co., NY
PropulsionSide wheels.
Complement42 officers and men
Armament1 32-pounder smoothbore cannon, 1 30-pounder rifled cannon
NotesNo mast, round tuck, no figurehead (Information from enrollment #78; December 26, 1860).
The Command flag of Captain Lynch, flown from the CSS Sea Bird

CSS Sea Bird was a sidewheel steamer in the Confederate States Navy.

Sea Bird was built at Keyport, New Jersey in 1854, was purchased by North Carolina at Norfolk, Virginia in 1861 and fitted for service with the Confederate States Navy. She was assigned to duty along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts with Lieutenant Patrick McCarrick, CSN, in command. Sea Bird served as the flagship of Confederate Flag Officer William F. Lynch's "Mosquito Fleet" during the hard-fought battles in defense of Roanoke Island on February 7–8, 1862, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on February 10 when she was rammed and sunk by USS Commodore Perry. Her casualties were two killed, four wounded, and the rest captured.

References

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W. Craig Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks. Louisiana State University Press, 2008.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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36°17′07″N 76°10′30″W / 36.285242°N 76.175079°W / 36.285242; -76.175079