AH-WR-0963

Stormy Petrel

Blockade Runner · United Kingdom · Lost 1864 · The Outer Banks

A fast Clyde-built blockade runner was driven ashore near Fort Fisher and destroyed by a gale days later.

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Stormy Petrel was a purpose-built iron blockade runner constructed on the Clyde in 1864 for the Anglo Confederate Trading Company. On her run toward Wilmington on 7 December 1864 she was run ashore near New Inlet and fired on by Union gunboats. A storm completely wrecked the grounded hull within days, and her remains have since been studied by maritime archaeologists alongside the nearby wreck of the runner Condor.

Vessel

Built: 1864
Builder: William Simmons
Yard: Renfrew, Scotland
Material: Iron
Length: 222 ft
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam, side-wheel (oscillating engines)
Owners: Anglo Confederate Trading Company, Liverpool

Loss

Date: December 7, 1864
Cause: Enemy action
Location: Near New Inlet, Fort Fisher, North Carolina
Water: Atlantic Ocean
Voyage: Bermuda → Wilmington, North Carolina
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Part of the Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.