Trouble at Lockwood Folly Inlet
11 JANUARY 1863
TROUBLE AT LOCKWOOD FOLLY INLET
Lockwood Folly Inlet is a two-mile-wide break in the North Carolina coast south of Cape Fear. It provides access to the Intercoastal Waterway and the Lockwood Folly River. Its sand bars shift, making it a difficult passage even today.
On 26 September 1863 the sidewheel blockade runner Elizabeth ran aground at the inlet while trying to skirt the breakers past Union blockaders. She was set ablaze to prevent her capture. Two moonless flood tides later, a second runner, the 162-foot, iron-hulled, paddlewheel, Bendigo, attempted the same run northward from Nassau. She sighted a Union blockader at the inlet and hugged even closer to the shore. The blockader turned out to be the still visible wreck of Elizabeth, and the mistake proved fatal. Bendigo ran aground as well.
She was indeed fast, and the next morning local Confederates lightered her where she rested. When the Union supply ship, USS FAHKEE, was spotted passing south with coal and freight for the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the rebels set fire to Bendigo. FAHKEE was a new ship, a 163-foot screw steamer built for the China trade in 1862 and acquired by our Navy the following year. She usually served the inglorious role of running supplies to other warships, but this morning her 73 sailors saw an opportunity to join the fighting! They spotted the smoke and closed the wreck to investigate. Small arms fire erupted from Confederates ashore that FAHKEE answered with her single 10-pounder rifle and twin, 24-pounder Dahlgren howitzers. Finding the runner’s hull yet intact, FAHKEE passed a line and attempted to tow the runner free. But the supply ship’s modest engine and single screw were not equal to the task. She held station for the next few days while help cruised north from the squadron’s headquarters. On January 9th the Union warships; FORT JACKSON, IRON AGE, DAYLIGHT, and MONTGOMERY arrived to survey the situation. IRON AGE’s skipper, LCDR Edward Stone, agreed it was worth salvaging the runner and renewed efforts to free her. They worked until the afternoon of January 10th, when IRON AGE and MONTGOMERY likewise grounded! The latter was soon freed, but the 144-foot screw steamer IRON AGE could not be lifted. Stone lightened his warship as much as possible and awaited the next high tide, yet still she was fast. Finally at 0400 this morning IRON AGE was fired. She exploded not two hours later when the flames reached her magazine. FAHKEE and the other warships pummeled Bendigo to a worthless wreck, then departed.
Today the wrecks of Elizabeth, Bendigo, and IRON AGE continue to hazard boaters and fishermen off southern North Carolina. As a Federal archeological site, the wrecks cannot be disturbed.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 15 JAN 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 383.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977. p. 459.
“Lockwood Folly Inlet and the Civil War Wrecks.” Saltwater Central website. AT: https://saltwatercentral.com/modules.php?name= content&pa=showpage&pid=3, retrieved 3 December 2023.
Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 92, 110.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: “Fahkee” might seem a strange name for an official Navy vessel. “Fahkee” was her intended civilian name meaning “flowery flag” in Cantonese, which is a Chinese nickname for the United States. That name was retained by our Navy after her acquisition in 1863. She survived the war and was ultimately sold to a Canadian merchant firm in August 1865.
