Sinking of the U. S. S. Housatonic by the Confederate States submarine torpedo boat H. L. Hunley, off Charleston, S. C., February 17, 1864

Report of Captain Green, U. S. Navy, commanding U. S. S. Canandaigua.

U.S.S. CANANDAIGUA,
Off Charleston, S. C., February 18, 1864.

 SECRETARY OF WAR:

SIR I have respectfully to report that a boat belonging to the Housatonic reached this ship last night at about 9:20, giving me information that that vessel had been sunk at 8:45 p. m. by a rebel torpedo craft.
  I immediately slipped our cable and started for her anchorage, and on arriving near it, at 9:35, discovered her sunk with her hammock nettings under water; dispatched all boats and rescued from the wreck 21 officers and 129 men.
  There are missing, and supposed to be drowned, the following-named officers and men:
  Ensign Edward C. Hazeltine, Captain’s Clerk Charles O. Muzzey, Quartermaster John Williams, Second-Class Fireman John Walsh, Landsman Theodore Parker.
  Captain Pickering is very much, but not dangerously, bruised, and one man is slightly bruised.
  I have transferred to the Wabash 8 of her officers and 49 men, on the account of the limited accommodations on board of this vessel.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
 J.F. GREEN,
Captain
Commodore S. C. ROWAN,.
Commanding Officer off Charleston, S. C.

 

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion; Series I - Volume 15: South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (October 1, 1863 - September 30, 1864), 1902, U.S. Government Printing Office

 

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