CSS Rob Roy

CSS Rob Roy was a Confederate blockade runner commanded by Captain William Watson, that ran to and from Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cuba from 1862 to 1864, during the American Civil War.

CSS Rob Roy

CSS Rob Roy
History
Confederate States
Name	Rob Roy
In service	1862
Out of service	2 March 1865
General characteristics
Type	Centerboard schooner
Length	78 ft (24 m)
Beam	22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Draft	4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) with centerboard up 13 ft (4.0 m) with centerboard down
Depth of hold	6 ft (1.8 m)
Sail plan	Schooner
Complement	8

Watson, who had immigrated from Great Britain several years before, had originally enlisted in the Confederate Army as a sergeant before being wounded at the Second Battle of Corinth, and discharged due to his injuries. Hiring out a schooner, commissioned as Rob Roy, Williams would bring desperately needed supplies into blockaded southern ports, specifically Galveston, Texas before selling the ship after financial disagreements with business associates. She was finally chased ashore and run aground by the Union vessel Fox and the USS Stars and Stripes on 2 March 1865 at Deadmans Bay where her crew set her on fire. Williams would later write about his wartime naval career in an autobiography The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner in 1892.

References

• Linedecker, Clifford L., ed. (2002). Civil War, A-Z: The Complete Handbook of America's Bloodiest Conflict. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-89141-878-4.

Further reading

• Watson, William (2001). The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner. Texas A & M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-152-X.