From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships

A town in Florida.

(Bark: dp. 297; l. 115'; b. 29'; dr. 10'; s. 8 k.; cpl. 86; a. 6 32-pdr.)

Fernandina, a bark, was purchased 29 July 1861 at New York as Florida; and renamed and commissioned 16 November 1861, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant G. W. Browne in command.

Fernandina reported for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads 2 December 1861, and was ordered south to duty on the blockade of Wilmington, N.C. On 13 December, she scattered a Confederate encampment on the beach near Little River Inlet, N.C. and 12 days later she took prize William H. Northrop, running the blockade with a cargo of drugs and coffee.

The bark discovered the schooner Kate out of Nassau, run aground on 2 April 1862, and after taking her papers off, burned the schooner, since both Fernandina and her party boarding the blockade runner were under Confederate fire from the shore. On 11 June, Fernandina was reassigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron which she joined off Charleston, S.C. Aside from the summer of 1863, when she sailed north for repairs, the bark blockaded at St. Simon's and St. Catherine's, Georgia, and in Ossabaw Sound. She captured the sloop Annie Thompson 16 January 1864, after the blockade runner had grounded. Detached from her squadron 3 April 1865, Fernandina was decommissioned at Philadelphia 29 April 1865 and sold 2 June 1865.

Transcribed by Yves HUBERT (hubertypc@aol.com)