USS Planter (1860)
Steamer Planter loaded with 1,000 bales of cotton at Georgetown, South Carolina. Ca 1860–61 or 1866–76 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | USS Planter |
| Launched | 1860 |
| Acquired | 30 May 1862 |
| In service | 1862 |
| Fate | Transferred to the Union Army, circa August 1862; sank during a storm on March 26, 1876 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steamer |
| Tonnage | 313 register |
| Length | 147 ft (45 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Draft | 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) |
| Depth of hold | 7 ft 10 in (2.39 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Armament | 1 × long 32-pounder gun, 1 × short 24-pounder howitzer |
USS Planter was a steamer taken over by Robert Smalls, a Southern slave and ship's pilot who steered the ship past Confederate defenses and surrendered it to Union Navy forces on 13 May 1862 during the American Civil War. The episode is missing from Scharf's History of the Confederate States Navy, except for one sentence saying that Smalls "stole" the ship.
For a short period, Planter served as a gunboat for the Union Navy. As the ship burned wood, which was scarce where the Navy was operating, the Navy turned the ship over to the Union Army for use at Fort Pulaski on the Georgia coast. In 1863 Smalls was appointed captain of Planter, the first black man to command a United States ship, and served in that position until 1866.