USS James Adger USS " James Adger " was a sidewheel 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 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 . " James Adger " was built at New York City by William H . Webb in 1851 . Her side - lever engine was supplied by the Allaire Iron Works . " James Adger " was purchased at New York for the sum of $ 85 , 000 from Spofford , Tileston & Co . , on 20 July 1861 , and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 20 September 1861 , Commander John B . Marchand in command . Civil War service . The Trent Affair , 1861 . " James Adger " departed New York on 16 October 1861 in pursuit of the CSS " Nashville " , a 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 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 . 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 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 . She helped on 29 May in capturing " Elizabeth " , a steamer trying to enter Charleston with a cargo of munitions . She assisted " Keystone State " and 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 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 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 " , 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 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 and in taking Confederate steamer " Kate " . On 8 November , with the assistance of 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 . As of 2005 , no other ship in the United States Navy has been named " James Adger " .