USS Hatteras
Steamship · United States · Lost 1863 · The Gulf of Mexico
A Union side-wheel gunboat sunk by the Confederate raider CSS Alabama off Galveston in 1863, the only U.S. Navy warship lost in Gulf combat during the Civil War.
The Vessel and Her Loss
USS Hatteras was an iron-hulled side-wheel steamer taken into Union Navy service as a gunboat during the Civil War. On January 11, 1863, while patrolling the blockade off Galveston, Texas, she was lured away and engaged by the Confederate raider CSS Alabama, which sank her in a brief but decisive action. Her surviving crew were taken prisoner. She remains the only Union warship sunk in combat in the Gulf of Mexico during the war, and her wreck lies in about 60 feet of water south of Galveston.
Vessel
- 1861
- Not established
- Not established
- Iron
- Not established
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- Not established
- Steam, side-wheel
- United States Navy
Loss
- January 11, 1863
- Enemy action
- About 20 miles south of Galveston, Texas
- Gulf of Mexico
- Not established
- Not established
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- Homer C. Blake
The Wreck Today
- 60 ft
- Storm-exposed iron hull remains on the seabed.
- Not established
- Not established
- National Register of Historic Places; located within federal waters managed by BOEM
Position
- 29.320° N 94.657° W
- Surveyed position
- Galveston, Texas
Coordinates correspond to the documented action site off Galveston Light.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (88/100)
Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas
Loss location, depth, and significance.
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Civil War shipwreck context.
NOAA Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Mapping expedition and wreck condition.
