USS Tristram Shandy ( 1864 ) USS " Tristram Shandy " ( 1864 ) was a 444 - ton steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . With her Parrott rifle installed , she was used by the Navy as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederate States of America to prevent the South from trading with other countries . Confederate Navy . " Tristram Shandy " took her name from the hero — and the shortened title — of the novel , " The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy , Gentleman " , which was written by Laurence Sterne between the years 1759 and 1767 . She was a schooner - rigged , iron - hulled sidewheel steamer completed in 1864 at Greenock , Scotland . She was originally owned by Matthew Isaac Wilson , a Liverpool , England , merchant . The ship subsequently sailed for the Bahamas , whence she took part in British efforts to continue trade with Southern states during the American Civil War . On her first attempt to run the Federal blockade , " Tristram Shandy " outdistanced a Union pursuer by dumping cargo overboard to gain a few more knots of speed . After reaching Wilmington , North Carolina , she returned to Nassau , Bahamas , to pick up another cargo earmarked for the Confederate States of America . Taken as a prize . Successfully slipping through the blockade , she unloaded at Wilmington and took on board a valuable cargo of cotton , turpentine , and tobacco . In addition , $ 50 , 000 in Confederate specie reposed in the ship ' s safe . On 15 May 1864 , the steamer attempted to slip to sea under the protective covering of a rain squall . The ship was darkened to avoid detection by roving Union patrols , but her funnels suddenly commenced throwing highly visible flames . Union gunboat spotted the telltale light and gave chase . For two hours , " Kansas " pursued and slowly gained on the fleeing blockade runner . Meanwhile , " Tristram Shandy " s master frantically called down for more steam . The fugitive steamer ' s engineer zealously carried out the orders from the bridge until a valve failure stopped her engine . Slowly , the blockade runner lost way and lay dead in the water , an easy prey for Union sailors . A boarding party from " Kansas " rigged a towline to the prize , and the blockader towed her to Beaufort , North Carolina . The erstwhile blockade runner was then taken to Massachusetts where the Navy purchased her from the Boston , Massachusetts , Prize Court . Union Navy ship . Converted to a gunboat . Repaired and converted to a gunboat at the Boston Navy Yard , the ship proceeded to Hampton Roads , Virginia , where she was commissioned on 12 August 1864 , Acting Vol . Lt . Edward F . Devens in command . Eleven days later , the ship arrived off Wilmington on 23 August and began duty as a blockader . On 7 September , her lookout sighted a strange ship . However , the distance between the two ships was too great , and the quarry slipped away . Her next chance came on 31 October when she joined and in pursuing a blockade runner which escaped after a three - hour chase . Destroying a blockade runner . On 3 December 1864 , a blockade runner , whose name could not be determined , ran aground off the western bar at Wilmington , at Marshall Shoals . Although within range of Fort Fisher ' s guns , " Tristram Shandy " closed the disabled blockade runner to destroy her before she could be salvaged by Southern forces . Commencing fire with her Parrott rifle and her 3 - pounders , the Union gunboat soon reduced the grounded runner to a blazing wreck , down by the bow and sinking from numerous hits . Meanwhile , Confederate batteries opened fire on the gunboat , and several Southern shells splashed close alongside . Through skillful maneuvering by her commanding officer , " Tristram Shandy " emerged unscathed , as she kept behind the clouds of smoke from her own guns and thus confused the Confederate lookouts spotting for the fort ' s heavy rifles . Attack on Fort Fisher . On Christmas Eve , in an attempt to take Fort Fisher and thus close the Confederacy ' s last major seaport , Rear Admiral David D . Porter deployed a large fleet of gunboats , ironclads , and transports off the fort and commenced laying down a heavy shore bombardment . Army forces slated to take part in the operation , under General Benjamin Franklin Butler , arrived from northward too late to commence operations on the first day . Ill feeling resulted between Butler and Porter , with the former officer returning to Washington , D . C . , and the operation temporarily shelved . After participating in the initial December bombardments of Fort Fisher , " Tristram Shandy " took part in the second assault which commenced on Friday , 13 January 1865 . A frontal assault by sailors and marines drawn from landing forces in the Fleet suffered disastrously as fusillades of gunfire from Confederate sharpshooters and cannoneers swept them down as wheat before a scythe . Meanwhile , Union Army forces attacked from the landward side , storming the fort ' s relatively undefended rear . By 15 January , Fisher was secured in Union hands , and the last barrier to Wilmington was removed , enabling the Union to stop the flow of supplies through the Confederacy ' s last seaport . " Tristram Shandy " resumed patrol operations off Wilmington ; and , on 25 January 1865 , she captured blockade runner " Blenheim " . The runner ' s captain and crew had not received the news of the fall of Fort Fisher and anchored off Mound Battery . He thus fell prey to Union sailors from the gunboat , who boarded " Blenheim " , and captured her easily . East Gulf blockade . On 31 January , " Tristram Shandy " joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and remained with that group into the spring . Returning north , she served as a dispatch vessel with Union forces operating in Hampton Roads , Virginia . Admiral Porter embarked in " Tristram Shandy " on 14 April , after the admiral had previously escorted President Abraham Lincoln on a tour of the devastated fallen Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia . Two days later , the ship moored at Baltimore , Maryland , where the admiral was greeted with the sad news that the President had been assassinated the previous night in Washington . End of hostilities . On 26 April , the ship returned to Hampton Roads to continue her duties as a dispatch vessel , operating off the Virginia Capes , concurrently serving as a lookout and keeping watch for the Confederate ram , believed to be still at sea and unaware that hostilities had ceased . " Tristram Shandy " then conveyed Confederate prisoners of war to Fort Pulaski , Georgia , in late May and returned to Hampton Roads on 2 June . Upon arrival , she was assigned to duty as a roving vessel operating under the direct orders of the Commander of the North Atlantic Squadron , for his use in inspecting the various ships and stations under his command . Sale , and civilian career . On 12 June 1865 , her name was changed to " Boxer " . Her service as a warship finished , " Tristram Shandy " was laid up at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , in the late summer of 1865 . She remained in reserve until sold on 1 September 1868 to J . N . Middleton , of Philadelphia , who renamed her " Firefly " . The erstwhile blockade runner and gunboat operated subsequently in mercantile service under a succession of owners until she ran aground off Havana , Cuba , and was declared a total loss in 1874 .