Potomac
Whaling Ship · United States · Lost December 19–20, 1861 · The Georgia & South Carolina Coast
Potomac was scuttled with stone in Charleston Harbor in December 1861 to obstruct the Main Ship Channel.
The Vessel and Her Loss
Potomac was a whaling ship built at Rochester, Massachusetts in 1841 and operated out of Nantucket. The vessel was used as a Union blockship during the Civil War. Gaines’s individual entry records scuttling with 350 tons of stone in Charleston Harbor’s Main Ship Channel on December 19–20, 1861. The individual wreck position and surviving remains are not established.
Vessel
- 1841
- Not established
- Rochester, Massachusetts
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- December 19–20, 1861
- Intentional sinking
- Main Ship Channel, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
- Charleston Harbor entrance, Atlantic Ocean
- Not established
- 350 tons of stone
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Charleston, South Carolina
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (80/100)
Exact sinking day, individual wreck position, dimensions and present condition are not established.
W. Craig Gaines — Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks, Louisiana State University Press (2008)
Individual Potomac entry: 1841 construction at Rochester, Nantucket home port, whaling ship rig, stone cargo and Charleston scuttling on December 19–20, 1861.
