USS Adela USS " Adela " ( 1862 ) was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways . Planning , in England , to run the Union Blockade . In the spring of 1862 , when the American Civil War was about a year old , " Adela " – a fast , iron - hulled , sidewheel steamer which had been operating out of Belfast , Ireland , as a merchantman — was purchased by some now unidentified agent who planned to use her for carrying arms and other contraband cargo through the Union blockade to the Confederacy . She steamed in ballast via Glasgow to Liverpool in May and — toward the end of that month — cleared the latter port , bound for the Bahamas where she planned to fill her holds with ordnance for the Confederate forces . " Adela " spotted by " Quaker City " and " Huntsville " . After a stop en route at Bermuda , the ship got underway on 4 July and headed for the island of New Providence in the Bahamas to take on her forbidden cargo at Nassau and to prepare for a dash through the Union blockade . Shortly after dawn on the 7th , lookouts on Northern warships , and , spotted the would - be blockade runner northwest of Great Abaco Island , endeavoring to evade them . The blockaders immediately gave chase . Six shots required to stop the stubborn captain of " Adela " . As the three speeding vessels approached New Providence , " Quaker City " hoisted the Stars and Stripes and fired a shell across " Adela ' s " bow , signaling her to heave to . After the fleeing steamer had ignored not only that round , but a second in the same direction and two more behind her stern , " Quaker City " sent a fifth shell directly into her stubborn quarry . Nevertheless , despite having taken a damaging direct hit , the sidewheeler continued her efforts to get away . Finally , a sixth shot into " Adela ' s " beam persuaded her commanding officer , James Walker — a former master of the Cunard Line ' s famed sidewheeler Great Eastern – to stop . A prize crew from " Quaker City " boarded the British steamer , and the Union warship towed the captured vessel to Key West , Florida , where she was turned over to the Admiralty court . England strongly protests the Union Navy action . British authorities strongly protested this action by the Union blockaders , demanding the release of the ship and of two bags of mail which the prize had been carrying . One had been taken on board at Liverpool and the other at Bermuda . The ensuing protracted diplomatic relations delayed the United States attorney at Key West as he attempted to press charges against the ship , but did not save her from ultimate condemnation . The Union case was strengthened by the fact that " Adela ' s " master removed the mail bags from the courthouse and destroyed their contents which was thereafter presumed to contain evidence of forbidden activity . Once the vessel finally had been condemned , the Navy purchased her on 23 May 1863 . Assigned to blockade duty in the Union Navy . The former blockade runner was then fitted out at the New York Navy Yard for blockade duty off the Confederate coast . No logs for the ship seem to have survived , and no other documents have been found which record the date of her being placed in commission by the Union Navy . However , we do know that her active service began on or before 13 June 1863 , for on that night " Adela " – commanded by Acting Volunteer Lt . Louis N . Stodder left the navy yard , bound for Key West , Florida , to join the East Gulf Blockading Squadron . " Adela " ordered to search for the raider , CSS " Clarence " . Meanwhile , during the time " Adela " was being prepared for active service , " CSS Florida " and " CSS Clarence " – a Northern merchant brig which the former Confederate cruiser had captured on 6 May 1863 , armed , and commissioned as a raider — were causing great consternation among merchants in the North by voraciously preying upon Union shipping . As a result , on 13 June 1863 — the day of " Adela ' s " first getting underway as a Union warship – Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles telegraphed the commandant of the New York Navy Yard orders to send whatever vessels he had available to sea in pursuit of " Clarence " . " Adela " was one of the vessels that responded to this call to action . Word of her new mission overtook her in the wee hours of the 14th while she was still in the vicinity of New York ; and she cruised south as far as Ocracoke Inlet , North Carolina , overhauling and boarding every vessel that she encountered . The papers of each were found to be in order , and all were allowed to resume their voyages . During the cruise , " Adela " proved to be , in the word of Stodder : She put into Hampton Roads , Virginia , on the 18th to re - coal and to obtain further orders . Welles wired Stodder instructions to resume the hunt ; and , after getting underway again on the 20th , " Adela " " . . . proceeded off Indian River Inlet , but could gain no information of the . . . . " CSS " Clarence ’ s " capture of the USS " Tacony " . ( On 12 June 1863 , the daring Confederate naval officer , Lt . Charles William Read , in CSS " Clarence " had captured the bark " Tacony " and , upon learning from the prize ' s log that she was a faster sailer than " Clarence " , transferred his crew and ordnance to " Tacony " and burned " Clarence " . ) . " Adela " resumes search for CSS " Clarence " . Stodder then returned to sea and heard from a passing merchantman that " Tacony " had been seen heading southeast . " Adela " cruised unsuccessfully in that direction until her depleted bunkers prompted Stodder to change to a southwesterly course toward Port Royal , South Carolina . After taking on coal at that Union naval base , the ship got underway on 30 June and arrived in Hampton Roads , Virginia , of the morning of 3 July . Confederate raider sneaks into Maine harbor and is caught . Meanwhile , Lt . Read — after learning from prisoners captured in his prizes that many Union warships were at sea searching for " Tacony " – had again changed ships , shifting to the captured schooner " Archer " on the night of 24 and 25 June . In her he entered the harbor at Portland , Maine , during the evening twilight of the 26th and anchored without arousing suspicion . At 0130 the following morning , he and most of his men clambered up the sides of " Caleb Gushing " and took over that revenue cutter from her astonished and sleepy crew . However , Read ' s spectacular series of successes was nearing its climax . He was forced to surrender at 1130 to the commandeered Boston Line steamer " Forrest City " . Raider danger over , " Adela " returns to New York for supplies . Thus , the end of the threat from Lt . Read , the ship - hopping commerce raider , freed " Adela " to turn her attention back to her original assignment , service in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron . She steamed from the Virginia Capes back to New York for voyage repairs and re - provisioning at the New York Navy Yard . Reassigned to Florida operations by Gideon Welles . On 7 July , Gideon Welles ordered Stodder " . . . to proceed with the U . S . S . " Adela " to Key West . . . , " but the steamer was not ready until late in the month and departed New York on the 30th . No record of her voyage to Florida waters seems to have survived , but the ship must have reached Key West , Florida , by 28 August , for she was then under orders to take blockade station off St . Andrew ' s Sound . The steamer served in that body of water until the later part of September , when she proceeded to Tampa Bay to relieve the screw gunboat " Sagamore " which had been patrolling there . Participating in Tampa Bay expedition to destroy boats loading cotton . On 13 October , joined " Adela " in Tampa Bay . That screw gunboat ' s commanding officer , Lt . Comdr . Alexander A . Semmes , had instructions from the commandant of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron , Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey , to land an armed expedition — manned by detachments from " Adela " and his own ship — to destroy two blockade runners that were reportedly anchored in the Hillsboro River , loading cotton . On the morning of the 16th , the two Northern warships moved in closer to Tampa , Florida , and , when some 2 , 000 yards from Fort Brooke , began bombarding the batteries which protected the town . The shelling was primarily intended to divert the attention of Confederate forces from the real purpose of expedition — the blockade runners . To confirm the false impression that the Union forces intended to land northeast of the fort , Semmes had some stakes placed in that vicinity . The ruse seems to have succeeded for his report of the expedition stated that " . . . that night quite a force was sent there to oppose a landing . " Union sailors land stealthily at night and burn the cotton boats . When the guns in Fort Brooke did not respond to the fire from the gunboats , " Tahoma " and " Adela " slackened the pace of their cannonade , but fired intermittently thereafter until they withdrew late in the afternoon . Then , under cover of darkness , they lowered several boats and filled them with 100 men — 60 from " Tahoma " and 40 from " Adela " – several officers , and a guide . The men pulled stealthily for shore , landed on the western shore of Old Tampa Bay , and marched some 14 miles through the dark swampland to the Hillsboro River . The guide who directed the Union sailors to the blockade runners , Mr . James Henry Thompson — a resident of Florida loyal to the Union — was so ill that he had to be carried on a litter . When they finally reached the river bank they found the blockade runners — steamer " Scottish Chief " and sloop " Kate Dale " – floating in the stream . The men from the Northern ships put the torch to both vessels and , once sure that the cotton - laden Confederate ships were ablaze and damaged beyond possible salvage , retired along the path whence they had come . Confederate forces trap and fires on the Union landing party . However , two men escaped from the burning ships , fled to Tampa , Florida , and alerted Southern defense forces of the Northern raid . As the Union sailors neared the shore , they encountered and attacked an armed Confederate scouting party dressed in civilian garb . In the ensuing melee , they captured two of the Southerners before the others took to their heels . A short time later , the Yankees emerged on the beach , only to learn that mounted Confederate troops , reinforced by infantry , were lurking in the woods nearby . Meanwhile , lookouts on the Union gunboats spotted their returning shipmates ; and , almost immediately , boats were lowered and their crews began pulling for shore . Then the Southerners opened fire from the forest and managed to kill two sailors , to wound 10 others — one mortally , and to capture five . The rest of the raiders entered the boats and returned safely to their ships . During the fighting ashore , " Adela " shelled the thicket to help the landing party to re - embark . Among the casualties suffered by the landing force , one of the two killed outright was from " Adela ' s " crew and one of her four wounded died soon after returning . One of her men was captured . Unsuccessful Confederate plot to capture the " Adela " . Soon after participating in this successful but costly action , " Adela " moved to St . George ' s Sound , took station off the East Pass to that body of water before the end of October , and served well into the spring of 1864 . The most interesting event during her protracted service at that place did not involve her directly . Early in May , Confederate forces completed plans for a joint Army - Navy operation whose " . . . object was . . . " in the words of Lt . William Budd of the Union converted ferryboat " Somerset " , " . . . the capture of the U . S . S . " Adela " , intending in the event of their being successful , to carry her into Mobile , or to burn her . . . . " Budd learned of this plan and , on the night of 12 May , landed an expedition from his ship and the schooner near the town of Apalachicola , Florida . This group of fighting Union sailors dispersed the Confederate forces as they were embarking and captured six of their seven boats , a large amount of equipment , and four of their men . Continued Florida operations . About this time , " Adela " shifted to the West Pass of St . George ' s Sound and was stationed there into August when she shifted to the West Pass of Apalachicola , Florida . She served at that post into September when she moved to St . Marks , Florida . Capture of the cotton - laden schooner " Badger " . The steamer was back off St . George ' s Sound — this time the middle entrance — on 6 November when a lookout on the masthead reported a strange sail . When Stodder ordered his engineers to get up steam , the stranger headed close to the breakers . " Adela " then launched her boats which rowed through the dangerous surf and took possession of the Confederate schooner " Badger " . The Southern vessel had just left St . Marks , bound for Havana , Cuba , laden with cotton . Reassigned to the Potomac River Flotilla . Later in the month , " Adela " steamed north to New York . Following repairs in the navy yard there which lasted until late in March , the ship was assigned to the Potomac Flotilla , and she guarded the water approaches to Washington , D . C . , during the troubled days following the assassination of President Lincoln . After the Potomac Flotilla was disbanded at the end of July , the ship returned to New York . " Adela " decommissioned and sold at war ’ s end . Since her logs have apparently not survived , the ship decommissioning date is unknown , but she was sold at public auction at New York City on 30 November 1865 . Her subsequent career remains a mystery .