Print, <i>Steamship</i> General Meade <i>of Boston</i>
date: label: date made
content: Between 1848 and 1891
name: label: maker
content: William Endicott and Company
notes: label: Description
content: Built by Pearse & Lockwood of Stockton-on-Tees, England, in August 1861, the blockade runner <i>Bermuda</i> (to be renamed <i>General Meade</i>) was chartered to Fraser, Trenholme & Co. The iron-hulled ship measured 211 feet long, 29 feet 7 inches wide, 21 feet 2 inches deep, and had a hold capacity of 893 tons. It had two engines making 135 hp and could reach speeds up to 10 knots with the help of its screw propeller. The <i>Bermuda</i> slipped safely thru the Northern blockade into Savannah, Georgia on September 18, 1861. During this trip it was bought by Henkel & Trenholme of Charleston, South Carolina. In February 1862 the <i>Bermuda</i> left Liverpool for the second time. On April 27, 1862 it was captured by U.S.S. <i>Mercedita</i> off the Bahamas. Sent to Philadelphia under a prize crew, the <i>Bermuda</i> was bought by the U.S. Navy Department for $120,000 in October 1862. Commissioned as U.S.S. <i>Bermuda</i>, it was given a three-gun battery and sent on blockade duty off Galveston, Texas. On August 14, 1863 it captured the British schooner <i>Carmita</i>, followed the next day by the British schooner <i>Artist</i>. On October 2, 1863 the schooner <i>Florrie</i> was seized, and on November 14, 1863 it recaptured a small American schooner off the Florida coast. At the end of the war in September 1865, the <i>Bermuda</i> was sold to Samuel C. Cook for $61,000. William F. Weld & Co. of Boston purchased it in 1868, renamed it <i>General Meade</i> and ran it between Boston, New York, Wilmington, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina under Capt. A.W. Sampson. The ship also occasionally ran to New Orleans and sometimes as far as Borneo. After the 1874 dissolution of the Weld firm, the <i>General Meade</i> was bought by F. Baker, one of the former partners. He sold it in 1878 to the Canadian Quebec & Gulf Ports SS Co. Renamed <i>Bahamas</i>, the steamer sailed out of Quebec in the summer, while during the winter it sailed from New York to the West Indies.
label: Description
content: On February 4, 1882, the <i>Bahamas</i> left San Juan with a full hold. At midnight on February 9 it was struck by a terrific hurricane. At 3:00 AM it was thrown on its beam ends; water poured into the engine room and extinguished the fires. The life-boats were lowered. The captain's boat with 20 people capsized, and all were lost. The other boat held 13 (11 crew and 2 passengers); three crew refused to leave the ship, which went down a few hours later. At 12:30 PM February 10, 1822 the surviving life-boat was sighted by the ship <i>Glenmorag</i>, and the survivors were brought to New York on February 15, 1882.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Maritime
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Cigna Maritime Collection
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content: Transportation
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0279.097
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0279.097
label: accession number
content: 2005.0279
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 3/4 in x 32 1/2 in; 50.165 cm x 82.55 cm