AH-WR-0117

CSS Georgiana

Blockade Runner · Confederate States of America · Lost 1863 · The Georgia & South Carolina Coast

A Confederate blockade runner built as a commerce raider was destroyed trying to reach Charleston in 1863, later becoming a hazard that wrecked three more ships.

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Georgiana was built in Scotland in 1862 with the speed and armament to serve as a Confederate commerce raider, but instead was pressed into blockade running. On March 19, 1863, while trying to reach Charleston with a valuable cargo of medicine and military supplies, she was engaged by Union blockading vessels, ran aground, and was destroyed. The wreck was discovered in the 1960s by diver-historian E. Lee Spence, and three later blockade runners subsequently wrecked near the same spot trying to avoid her remains.

Vessel

Built: 1862
Builder: Not established
Yard: Scotland
Material: Iron
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam, single screw
Owners: George Alfred Trenholm

Loss

Date: March 19, 1863
Cause: Enemy action
Location: Off Isle of Palms, near Charleston, South Carolina
Water: Atlantic Ocean
Voyage: Charleston, South Carolina
Cargo: Medicine, arms, and other supplies intended for the Confederacy
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 1965
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 32.780° N 79.760° W
Accuracy: Surveyed position
Nearest: Isle of Palms, South Carolina
Region: The Georgia & South Carolina Coast

Underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence's 1965 discovery position for the Georgiana wreck off Isle of Palms is documented and cited by Wikipedia and Spence's own account.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Partially documented (70/100)

Casualty figures and the vessel's precise dimensions are not established in the sources reviewed.

South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology
Vessel background, blockade-running role, and Charleston-area Civil War wreck context.
Shipwrecks.com (E. Lee Spence account)
Discovery account, loss narrative, and subsequent wrecks at the site.
SS Georgiana (Wikipedia, citing Spence discovery record)
wreck position