USS Sea Bird
USS Sea Bird was a Confederate schooner captured by the Union Navy during the Civil War and used as a gunboat to patrol Confederate waterways and prevent blockade running.
Sea Bird was captured by the Union side wheel steamer DeSoto on May 13, 1863, and was purchased by the Navy on July 12, 1863, from the Key West prize court. It was fitted at Key West and commissioned in late July or early August 1863, with Acting Master Charles P. Clark in command. Its orders were to cruise the Gulf of Mexico and target blockade runners.
On October 15, 1863, Sea Bird, together with USS Fox and USS Two Sisters, helped the steamer Honduras pursue the British steamer Mail near St. Petersburg, Florida. The Mail, loaded with cotton and bound for Havana, had slipped from Bayport, Florida.
In July 1864, Sea Bird and three other small sailing ships carried Union troops for a raid on Brookville, Florida. After landing soldiers, Sea Bird and USS Ariel went to Bayport, captured cotton, and burned the customs house before returning to Anclote Keys. On October 21, Sea Bird captured the British schooner Lucy off Anclote Keys with an assorted cargo.
Sea Bird remained active through the end of the war, taking its last prizes on April 11, 1865, when it seized the sloops Florida and Annie, both laden with cotton off Crystal River, Florida, and destroyed them. After peace returned, Sea Bird was decommissioned and sold at Key West to W. F. Pitcher on June 28, 1865.
General characteristics:
- Displacement: 58 tons
- Length: 59 ft 8 in
- Beam: 18 ft 4 in
- Draft: about 7 ft
- Depth of hold: 7 ft 6 in
- Propulsion: schooner sails
- Complement: about 15
- Armament: one 12-pounder howitzer
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:25 (CET).