J. M. Chapman, a 90-ton schooner, was purchased in 1863, by Asbury Harpending and other California members of the Knights of the Golden Circle in San Francisco to outfit as a Confederate privateer.
Harpending's plan to capture Pacific Mail Steamship Company ships along the Pacific coast carrying gold and silver shipments to Panama. He intended to then take what he seized to support the Confederacy. The plan attempt was detected and a boarding party made up of crew from the United States Navy sloop-of-war USS Cyane, revenue officers, and San Francisco Police Department officers seized the ship and its crew on the night of their intended departure.
The ship was lost in December 1864 on a voyage between Shoalwater Bay in Queensland, Australia, and San Francisco.
References
- DANFS Online; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Page 584, APPENDIX II. ANNEX I, PRIVATEERS COMMISSIONED BY THE CONFEDERATE STATES GOVERNMENT
- California Military Museum; The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866, The following article is taken from Aurora Hunt's book, The Army of the Pacific; Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866, under the chapter "The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866", pp.305-310
- John Boessenecker, Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. pg. 135-136
- Gaines, W. Craig (2008) Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks. (LSU Press), p.28.
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- California in the American Civil War
- Privateer ships
- Maritime history of California
- 1860s ships
- Maritime incidents in 1863
- Maritime incidents in December 1864
- Ships of the Confederate States Navy
- Piracy in the Pacific Ocean
- History of San Francisco
- Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
- American Civil War ship stubs
- Knights of the Golden Circle