CSS Sumter

CSS Sumter
History
Confederate States of America
Laid down1859
ChristenedHabana
AcquiredApril 1861
Commissioned3 June 1861 as CSS Sumter
FateSold 19 December 1862 (renamed Gibraltar). Foundered on the Dogger Bank 14 February 1867.
General characteristics
Displacement473 tons
Length184 ft (56 m)
Beam30 ft (9.1 m)
Draft12 ft (3.7 m)
PropulsionSteam, Sail
Speed10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement18
Armament
  • 1 × 8-inch shell gun
  • 4 × 32-pounder guns

CSS Sumter, converted from the 1859-built merchant steamer Habana, was the first steam cruiser of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She operated as a commerce raider in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic Ocean against Union merchant shipping between July and December 1861, taking eighteen prizes, but was trapped in Gibraltar by Union Navy warships. Decommissioned, she was sold in 1862 to the British office of a Confederate merchant and renamed Gibraltar, successfully running the Union blockade in 1863 and surviving the war.