View source for USS James Adger

{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = The capture of the 'Emily St. Pierre' off Charleston, March 1862 by William Gay Yorke.jpg
| Ship caption = USS ''James Adger'', capturing the ''Emily St. Pierre'' off Charleston, 18 March 1862
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country = United States
| Ship flag = {{USN flag|1861}}
| Ship name = SS ''James Adger''
| Ship namesake = 
| Ship owner = James Adger & Co.
| Ship operator = 
| Ship route = [[Charleston, South Carolina]] – [[New York City]]
| Ship builder = [[William H. Webb]]
| Ship laid down = 
| Ship launched = 
| Ship completed = 1851
| Ship in service = 
| Ship out of service = 
| Ship homeport = 
| Ship fate = Seized at the outset of the Civil War, 1861
| Ship notes = 
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = title
| Ship country = United States
| Ship flag = {{USN flag|1866}}
| Ship name = USS ''James Adger''
| Ship acquired = By purchase, 20 July 1861
| Ship commissioned = 20 September 1861
| Ship decommissioned = 1865
| Ship in service = 
| Ship out of service = 
| Ship struck = 
| Ship homeport = 
| Ship motto = 
| Ship nickname = 
| Ship honors = 
| Ship fate = Sold, 9 October 1866
| Ship notes = 
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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| Header caption = 
| Ship type = [[Steamboat|Sidewheel steamer]]
| Ship displacement = {{convert|1152|LT|t|abbr=on}}
| Ship length = {{convert|215|ft|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship beam = {{convert|33|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship hold depth = {{convert|21|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}}
| ship power = {{convert|240|hp|kW|lk=in|abbr=on}}
| Ship power = *1 × [[Marine steam engine#Side-lever|side-lever]] engines
*2 × [[Paddle wheel|side-wheels]]
| Ship sail plan = Auxiliary sails
| Ship speed = {{convert|11|kn|mph km/h|lk=in|abbr=on}}
| Ship range = 
| Ship complement = 120 officers and enlisted
| Ship armament = 8 × 32-pounder guns, 1 × 20-pounder [[Parrott rifle]]
| Ship notes = 
}}
|}

'''USS ''James Adger''''' was a sidewheel [[steamship|steamer]] in the [[Union Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]]. She retained her former name.

Before being pressed into service by the United States Navy, the '''SS ''James Adger''''' was a United States Mail Steamship operating between Charleston, South Carolina and [[New York City]], New York. Owned by [[James Adger|James Adger II]] (James Adger & Co) of Charleston, she was seized while in New York City at the outset of the Civil War and converted for military duty by the Union Navy. There is at least one instance in which the USS James Adger was used to transport a slave, 35-year-old "Margarette," from Charleston to New York. Her owners or shippers were Thomas P. Tainter and John Dickinson; the steamer arrived in NY on 7 July 1852 (see Slave Manifests for the Port of NY, 1822–1852, National Archives Catalog).

''James Adger'' was built at [[New York City]] by [[William H. Webb]] in 1851. Her {{convert|240|hp|kW|lk=in|abbr=on}} [[marine steam engine#Side-lever|side-lever]] engine was supplied by the [[Allaire Iron Works]].<ref name=bauerroberts_p87>Bauer and Roberts, p. 87.</ref>

''James Adger'' was purchased at New York for the sum of $85,000<ref name=dsc_20aug66>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=DSC18660820.2.20 "To The Projectors Of Steam Companies"], ''Daily Southern Cross'', 1866-08-20, p. 4.</ref> from Spofford, Tileston & Co., on 20 July 1861, and commissioned at [[New York Navy Yard]] on 20 September 1861, [[Commander (United States)|Commander]] John B. Marchand in command.

==Civil War service==
===The Trent Affair, 1861===
{{main|Trent Affair}}

''James Adger'' departed New York on 16 October 1861 in pursuit of the [[CSS Nashville (1861)|CSS ''Nashville'']], a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[cruiser]] reported to have escaped from [[Charleston, South Carolina]] with the South's ministers to [[England]] and [[France]], [[James M. Mason]] and [[John Slidell]]. She arrived at [[Queenstown, Ireland]] after an extremely stormy passage in October and spent November cruising in quest of her elusive quarry. The diplomats were apprehended by {{USS|San Jacinto|1850|2}} on 8 November.

While in port, the captain of '' James Adger'' began the legal questions that would be used in the [[Trent Affair]] by loudly speaking of his mission while intoxicated on brandy. [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Earl Russell]] would hear of his mission and set the Law offices of the Crown to work deciding on the status of diplomats as a form of [[contraband]].

===South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1861-1863===
''James Adger'' arrived [[Hampton Roads]], Va. on 2 December and three days later was ordered to [[Port Royal, South Carolina]] for duty in the [[South Atlantic Blockading Squadron]]. [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear Admiral]] [[Samuel Francis Du Pont]] ordered Comdr. Marchand to sail in ''James Adger'' to [[Georgetown, S.C.]], and assume command of the blockade there. She arrived off Georgetown, S.C. on 24 December and served with such efficiency that on 7 March 1862, Comdr. Marchand was ordered to Charleston to command the blockade at that critical port.

At Charleston, smooth teamwork was the key to success, and ''James Adger'' was unusually adept in cooperating with other ships in the area to assure the effectiveness of the blockade. As senior ship, she usually remained on station while others chased [[blockade runner]]s; from time to time, she took part in a capture herself. On 18 March, she joined four other Union ships in capturing ''Emily St. Pierre'' attempting to slip into Charleston with a cargo of 2,173 bales of gunny cloth sorely needed for baling [[cotton]], the South's main [[export]] and source of foreign [[Credit (finance)|credit]]. She helped {{USS|Keystone State|1853|2}} on 29 May in capturing ''Elizabeth'', a {{convert|250|LT|t|abbr=on}} steamer trying to enter Charleston with a cargo of munitions. She assisted ''Keystone State'' and {{USS|Flag|1861|2}} in driving off and pursuing her old adversary ''Nashville'' — now a blockade runner named ''Thomas L. Wragg'' — trying to slip into Charleston.

''James Adger'' sailed for [[Baltimore]] on 19 September for repairs and departed for the South on 31 December touching at Hampton Roads on 2 January 1863 to take monitor {{USS|Montauk|1862|2}} in tow before proceeding to Beaufort and Port Royal in preparation for an attack on Charleston. Arriving Port Royal on 19 January, the ships learned that ''Nashville'', now a [[privateer]] called ''Rattlesnake'', was in the [[Ogeechee River]]. ''James Adger'' stood out of Port Royal, monitor ''Montauk'' in tow on 22 January and steamed to [[Ossabaw Sound]], where she arrived two days later. ''Montauk'' ascended the Ogeechee independently to begin operations which resulted in the destruction of ''Rattlesnake'' on 28 February. Meanwhile, ''James Adger'' — her vital towing service completed — returned to Port Royal on 29 January.

On 2 April, the veteran ship became [[flagship]] for Rear Admiral Du Pont while he supervised final preparations for his powerful monitor attack upon Charleston. After the tough [[ironclad]]s were driven back by incredibly intense fire from Confederate batteries, ''James Adger'' towed crippled monitors to Port Royal and on 29 April sailed from Port Royal towing {{USS|Passaic|1862|2}} north for repairs, arriving New York on 4 May.

Back in Port Royal on 16 May, ''James Adger'' was assigned blockade duty off Charleston. A month later, she was recalled to Port Royal to embark prisoners captured with Atlanta for passage to [[Fort Monroe]], whence she steamed to [[Philadelphia]] for repairs. She arrived Philadelphia 25 June but immediately after coaling sailed in pursuit of Confederate commerce railer [[CSS Tacony|CSS ''Tacony'']], then operating against Union merchantmen far up the East Coast. She arrived New York on 3 July.

===North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1863===
Four days later, ''James Adger'' — not yet repaired — received orders to [[Wilmington, North Carolina|Wilmington]] for duty with the [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]]. Arriving Wilmington on 27 July, she was stationed off New Inlet, where five days later she assisted {{USS|Iroquois|1859|2}} and {{USS|Mount Vernon|1859|2}} in taking Confederate steamer ''Kate''. On 8 November, with the assistance of {{USS|Niphon|1863|2}} she captured ''Cornubia'', an iron side wheeler bringing in a valuable cargo of arms, ammunition, and chemicals. Moreover, a package of documents thrown overboard before the capture, when plucked out of the sea, divulged information so important to the South that ''Cornubia''{{'}}s captain lamented, "though the ''Cornubia'' is a small vessel the Confederate Government could better have afforded to lose almost any other..." The next morning, ''James Adger'' took Confederate steamer ''Robert E. Lee'' coming into Wilmington from Bermuda with a cargo of arms and Army clothing sorely needed by Lee's soldiers. Schooner ''Ella'', approaching Wilmington with a cargo of salt and yard goods from [[Nassau, Bahamas]], was ''James Adger''{{'}}s next victim, surrendering on 26 November.

Without the normal overhaul periods due ships and men, service was taking a daily toll in wear and tear. When the ship's long postponed repairs could be delayed no longer, ''James Adger'' sailed north and decommissioned at Philadelphia on 28 December for the necessary yard work.

===South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Caribbean, 1864-1865===
After recommissioning on 17 June 1864, ''James Adger'' served in the [[South Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] until the end of the war. On 21 April 1865, Secretary [[Gideon Welles]] ordered her to Mariguana Passage (now Mayaguana Passage) in the Bahamas to escort a convoy of California-bound ships. Following a visit to New York, she cruised in the Caribbean off Panama and Colombia from August 1865-February 1866.

''James Adger'' decommissioned at New York Navy Yard on 2 May and was sold at New York to James B. Campbell on 9 October.

''James Adger'' was demolished on [[Apple Island (Massachusetts)|Apple Island]] in [[Boston Harbor]].<ref>Sweetser, M.F. ''King's Handbook of Boston Harbor,'' 1883.</ref>

As of 2005, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named ''James Adger''.

==Footnotes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
*Bauer, Karl Jack and Roberts, Stephen S. (1991): ''Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants'', Greenwood Publishing Group, {{ISBN|978-0-313-26202-9}}.
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/j/james_adger.htm}}

==External links==
*[http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-j/j-adger.htm Photo gallery] at Naval Historical Center
{{List of Ships Built by William H. Webb}}{{DEFAULTSORT:James Adger}}
[[Category:Steamships of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built by William H. Webb]]
[[Category:Ships of the Union Navy]]
[[Category:1851 ships]]