USS Aries ( 1863 ) USS " Aries " ( 1863 ) was a 820 - ton iron screw steamer built at Sunderland , England , during 1861 - 1862 , intended for employment as a blockade runner during the American Civil War . She was captured by Union Navy forces during the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America , and was commissioned as a Union gunboat . " Aries " was named for the constellation . Although sold by the United States Navy post - war in 1865 , " Aries " — the first ship to bear that name for the U . S . Navy — continued her work in the merchant service for nearly half a century , before being scrapped in 1908 . Built in Sunderland , England . The first U . S . Navy ship to bear the name " Aries " , she was laid down in 1861 at Sunderland , England , by James Laing ' s Deptford yard . Built during the American Civil War in the hope that she would be purchased by persons planning to break the Union blockade of the South , this iron - hulled , screw steamer was completed in 1862 and sold later that year to Frederic Peter Obicino of London , England . She has resold , apparently sometime in 1863 , to the Cuban firm , V . Malga & Cie , of Havana , Cuba . Blockade running . Almost no records of her career as a blockade runner seem to have survived , but we know that " Aries " did enter that chancy business , for a Confederate report on cotton exports between 1November 1862 and 31 May 1863 states that she carried 740 tons of cotton out of either Wilmington , North Carolina , or Charleston , South Carolina . The number of her voyages to the South is unknown ; and , in any case , her efforts to supply the Confederacy ended on 28 March 1863 . Capture by Union Navy forces . Shortly after midnight , lookouts on screw steamer " Stettin " — herself an erstwhile blockade runner now , following capture , turned blockader — spotted " Aries " off Bull ' s Bay , South Carolina , attempting to slip through the blockade with a cargo of liquor . The Union screw gunboat immediately weighed anchor and gave chase . When the runner was within range , " Stettin " opened fire on " Aries " and continued the pursuit until shoal water forced her to anchor . At daybreak , " Stettin ' s " commanding officer , Acting Master Edward F . Devens , saw that his quarry had run ashore on the south end of Petrel Bank . He immediately lowered two boats , and , " . . . taking command in person . . . went on board and took possession of her as a prize to the U . S . Government . " Since the blockade runner was aground astern , Devens had her cargo shifted forward ; and the stranded steamer floated free with the rising tide . Devens took " Aries " via Charleston to Port Royal , South Carolina , where Rear Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont stated that she " . . . is the most perfect example of a blockade runner we have yet seen — her masts lower in a peculiar way , invented for this very purpose . " He ordered her north for adjudication in admiralty court and , since Devens was ill , detached him from " Stettin " and placed him in charge of the prize crew for the voyage to Boston , Massachusetts , where she was condemned and purchased there by the Navy on 20 May 1863 . Civil War operations . New England shoreline terrorized . While " Aries " was being fitted out for service in the Union Navy , Lt . Charles W . Read , CSN , in the prize " Clarence " , captured the bark " Tacony " ; shifted his crew to her as a better vessel ; and began a cruise north and off the New England shoreline in which he terrorized Union shipping and frightened Northern coastal cities . To still the clamor of frightened citizens for protection from this " rebel pirate , " Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles sent out a number of warships in pursuit of the commerce raider and promised that " Aries " would soon join them . However , before " Aries " was ready for sea , other Union warships closed in on Read and compelled him to surrender his force . " Aries " was placed in commission at the Boston Navy Yard on 25 July 1863 , Acting Vol . Lt . Edward F . Devens in command . Assigned to the South Atlantic blockade . On the day of her commissioning , the screw steamer sailed for Port Royal , South Carolina , carrying 200 men : marines to help Rear Admiral John A . Dahlgren build up his forces for a renewed attack on Fort Wagner which guarded the seaward approaches to Charleston , South Carolina . After disembarking her passengers , she got underway again for Fortress Monroe , Virginia , carrying word that Dahlgren ' s coal had been exhausted and that " . . . a supply can not be forwarded too soon . " From Hampton Roads , Virginia , " Aries " proceeded to New York City where she took on board two hundred more men for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , before heading south once more . At sea in hurricane - force winds . After delivering these replacements at Port Royal , she embarked some 100 passengers — mostly either sailors who were too ill to remain in a fighting zone or men whose periods of enlistment had expired . However , during her voyage north , she encountered a fearful storm off Cape Lookout , North Carolina , on 27 August and suffered engine failure while fighting its waves . The wind was so severe that Comdr . John J . Almy — the commanding officer of which chanced upon the disabled " Aries " on 1 September — described the weather as worse " . . . than I ever recollect to have seen it in the course of my sea service of more than twenty - one years . " The commanding officer of another Union warship , stated that " . . . had the hurricane . . . continued with unabated force much longer this ship ( " Pocahontas " ) could not have outlived it . . . " " Connecticut " took " Aries " in tow and proceeded via Beaufort , North Carolina , to Hampton Roads , Virginia , where they arrived on the 6th . Two days later , the screw steamer arrived and towed " Aries " to Baltimore , Maryland , for repairs . Capturing the blockade runner " Ceres " . Early in November , as the yard work on " Aries " was approaching completion , Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Devens to proceed in her to the waters off Wilmington , North Carolina , for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . Her first action in this new assignment began at daybreak on 6 December when one of her lookouts spotted a steamer aground on Western Bar near Smith ' s Island , North Carolina . " Aries " got underway immediately and headed for the stranded blockade runner which soon proved to be the new British , iron - hulled , screw - propelled steamer " Ceres " which had departed Bermuda on the 3d and had struck bottom while attempting to slip into the Cape Fear River sometime on the night of the 5th and 6th . When shoal water compelled " Aries " to heave to , Devens launched two boats which continued on to the blazing " Ceres " . Upon boarding the prize , the boat parties set to work with fire buckets trying to quench the flames and stuck to the task despite fire from Southern batteries ashore . Meanwhile , the officers in charge of the boats broke into the captain ' s cabin and found a number of papers which contained highly valuable intelligence . Finally — after realizing that despite the diligent efforts of the Union bluejackets — the flames were gaining on the bucket handlers , the boat parties withdrew from the British blockade runner and returned to their own ship . That night , the rising tide refloated " Ceres " ; and , early the following morning , observers on the blockaders could see her drifting seaward . A boat ' s crew from boarded the prize , anchored her in safe water , and — with men from " Aries " , , and " Connecticut " — put out the remaining fires . " Aries " then towed the erstwhile blockade runner to Beaufort , the prize ' s first stop on a voyage via Hampton Roads to Washington , D . C . for adjudication . Capturing blockade runner " Antonio " . After delivering " Ceres " to Beaufort , " Aries " returned to blockade duty off Wilmington . At dawn on 20 December , men on board the ship sighted steam rising from a strange vessel , some four miles away to the east , southeast . Shortly thereafter , Union blockader , appeared , closing the potential prize while " Aries " joined in the pursuit . As she neared shoal waters , " Aries " anchored in four fathoms of water and sent an armed boat bearing a boarding party to the blockade runner . They learned that the stranger was the Confederate blockade runner " Antonio " which previously had won considerable renown under the names " Lamar " and " Herald " playing a cat - and - mouse game with Federal blockaders as she carried contraband cargo into Southern ports and escaped to sea , laden each time with between 1 , 000 and 1 , 200 bales of cotton . The night before she had been taking the part of the mouse as she ran aground while attempting to slip into the Cape Fear River with a cargo consisting primarily of potable spirits . After brief efforts to pull free proved futile , Capt . W . F . Adair , the commander of the steamer , ordered his crew to abandon their ship and to head for the nearest land in boats , hoping to reach shore before daylight . However , they were spotted by Union blockader " Governor Buckingham " and captured by that steamer and the Federal tug " Violet " . Men from " Aries " and from several other Union ships remained on board " Antonio " , for the next few days laboring in vain to refloat the prize . When rising water in the grounded and damaged steamer ' s hull made it clear that the effort could not possibly succeed , the Federal sailors finally left the ship on Christmas Eve . Burning blockade runner Dare . " Aries " ' next adventure came at the end of the first week of 1864 . Shortly after daybreak on 7 January , while his ship was lying within the entrance of Little River , North Carolina , Devens " . . . discovered a strange steamer standing to the E . S . E . , with the in chase of her . . . " " Aries " immediately got underway to join in the pursuit and gained on the stranger . Weather was bad and , about 8 : 20 a . m . , thick fog settled and hid the fleeing steamer . When it lifted a bit over an hour later , the chase was considerably closer than she had been when last seen . " Aries " opened fire , and her shot fell close to the target . This accuracy prompted the blockade runner to haul " . . . to the westward . . . " However , the steamer ran aground close to North Inlet , near Georgetown , South Carolina ; and her crew escaped to shore . Closing fast , " Aries " came to anchor to avoid being stranded herself and " . . . immediately sent two armed boats to board the steamer and get her off . " High surf thwarted their efforts to refloat the prize , so the boats ' crews set the vessel afire and returned to " Aries " with word that the blockade runner was the Confederate steamer " Dare " . Unfortunately , Aries second cutter swamped in the surf during the expedition resulting in the capture of two of its officers and seven enlisted men by Confederate forces . A boat from " Montgomery " also capsized with the loss of two officers and fourteen men who were imprisoned . Continuing interception operations . On the evening of 10 January , orders reached Lt . Devens to send his boats to assist which had run aground that morning while attempting to refloat the stranded blockade runner " Bendigo " near Lockwood ' s Folly Inlet . About midnight , her boats — along with some from , , and " Governor Buckingham " — received the officers and men of the doomed Union screw steamer . The following morning , 11 January , " Aries " joined " Minnesota " , " Daylight " , and " Governor Buckingham " in chasing the blockade runner " Ranger " which was attempting to enter the Cape Fear River with a cargo from Newcastle upon Tyne , England . The Northern ships drove the steamer aground where she was abandoned by her crew . However , their efforts to refloat " Ranger " as a prize were stopped by Southern sharpshooters " . . . whose fire completely commanded her ( " Ranger ' s " ) decks . " Since it was impossible to take possession of " Ranger " , the Union sailors burned her . While these actions were taking place , black smoke was spotted in the direction of Shallotte Inlet . " Aries " , which had been withdrawn from her station in that quarter the previous night , was sent to investigate . She soon came across " . . . a fine - looking double propeller blockade runner , resembling " Ceres " , beached and on fire between Tubb ' s and Little River Inlets . . . " Once more Southern sharpshooters prevented Union parties from boarding the steamer , extinguishing the flames , and taking possession of the prize . The next day , after the riflemen had withdrawn , Devens did manage to board the ship and learned that she was " Vista " , a sister ship of " Ceres " . However , serious damage to her hull made it impossible to refloat the blockade runner , and her two anchors were his only booty . Shelled by shore batteries . " Aries " ' next lively action came two months later . On 14 March , she and drove a large , long , and low side - wheel steamer ashore on the west point of Oak Island , near the Western Bar , off Wilmington . Their approach to the unidentified potential prize — which resembled the recently captured North Carolina blockade runner " A . D . Vance " — was ended by shelling from Southern shore batteries . Much of the spring and summer , " Aries " was out of action undergoing repairs ; but she returned to duty off Wilmington in September . On 28 October , she assisted and in capturing the English steamer " Lady Sterling " . Again on the night of 6 November , " Aries " " . . . discovered a strange steamer . . . " , immediately gave chase , opened fire on the stranger , and threw rockets to the eastward , indicating his course . Nevertheless , despite assistance in the pursuit by " Maratanza " and " Eolus " and the blockade runner ' s being briefly stranded , a rising tide and clever seamanship enabled the steamer to escape to safety in Wilmington . On 3 December , " Aries " joined five other ships in shelling blockade running steamer " Ella " which Union blockader had forced aground on Marshall Shoal , Smith ' s Island , North Carolina , " . . . placing her in a condition which rendered it impossible to get her off . . . " Attack on Fort Fisher . Years of labor and the endurance of tedium by the sailors who manned the Union warships on blockade duty were finally strangling the Confederacy . Not only were more and more blockade runners being destroyed and captured , but joint Army - Navy operations were snatching one seaport after another from the South . As the year 1864 drew to a close , only one major port remained in Confederate hands , Wilmington , where " Aries " had served almost exclusively since entering the Union Navy . And , at that time , plans were well advanced for an amphibious attack against Fort Fisher which guarded that last center of Southern maritime activity . " Aries " was in the reserve division of a vast task force which departed Beaufort on 18 December and headed for the mouth of the Cape Fear River . Troops went ashore on Christmas Eve and seriously threatened Fort Fisher ; but the Army commander , Major General Benjamin F . Butler , feared that his troops could not cope with the Southern forces that defended the Confederate works . As a result he ordered his men to re - embark . Second attack on Fort Fisher . Dissatisfied with Butler ' s lack of resolution , Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter — the commander of the naval forces in the operation — pressed Washington , D . C . , for a renewed attack . Early in January 1865 , a mighty force was assembled for a new effort against Fort Fisher . " Aries " , although again assigned to the reserve division , helped to land troops on the 13th and , once they were ashore , supported the troops for the next two days . The defenders finally capitulated on the 15th , shutting off the South from all foreign aid . The Confederacy was now doomed . Reassigned to the East Gulf blockade . After supporting mopping up operations in the vicinity of Wilmington for the remainder of January and all of February , " Aries " departed Hampton Roads on the morning of 5 March and headed for Key West , Florida , to join the East Gulf Blockading Squadron . However , when she reached Florida waters , her machinery necessitated her remaining in port undergoing repairs into May . She was then sent to sea to cruise off Havana , Cuba , to intercept should that Confederate raider attempt to escape to sea . After Stonewall ' s commanding officer , Capt . Thomas Jefferson Page , learned of the end of the war and turned his ship over to Spanish authorities , Post - war sale and subsequent career . " Aries " returned to Key West . On 1 June , she was ordered to Boston , Massachusetts , where she was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on the 14th of that month . Sold at public auction at Boston on 1 August 1865 to Sprague , Soule & Co . , the steamer was documented on 12 August 1865 as SS " Aries " . She retained her original name throughout a long career in merchant service carrying freight between Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and New England ports . She was sold in 1908 for scrapping