Bendigo
Blockade Runner · United Kingdom · Lost 1864 · The Outer Banks
An iron blockade runner ran aground at Lockwood's Folly Inlet after mistaking a sunken sister ship's wreck for a Union blockader.
Charlie Noble
The Vessel and Her Loss
Bendigo was an iron-hulled side-wheel steamer running the blockade between Nassau and Wilmington when, in the early hours of 3 January 1864, her pilot spotted what he took for a Union blockader near Lockwood's Folly Inlet. It was in fact the wreck of the runner Elizabeth, burned there months earlier. Trying to slip past on the shore side, Bendigo ran hard aground. Locals salvaged some cargo before she was set afire, and Union warships later shelled the wreck.
Vessel
- Not established
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- Iron
- 162 ft
- 20 ft
- 178
- Steam, side-wheel
- Confederate blockade-running interests
Loss
- January 3, 1864
- Grounding
- Lockwood's Folly Inlet, near Holden Beach, North Carolina
- Atlantic Ocean
- Nassau, Bahamas → Wilmington, North Carolina
- Not established
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The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Portions of the hull remain visible near a channel marker at low tide.
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- Part of the Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Holden Beach, North Carolina
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (78/100)
Identification, condition, and site history of the Bendigo wreck.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies (Carolana.com transcription)
Loss date, dimensions, and circumstances of grounding.
