21. One ship served as a blockade runner and a warship in both contending Navies
SS Fingal was a Clydebank steamer which operated out of Glasgow and Greenock before it caught the eye of Confederate agents in Scotland. It was purchased for the Confederate Navy, loaded with military supplies in Greenock, and sailed to the Bahamas. Upon arrival, the British crew was informed the ship’s destination was Savannah, and it arrived in that port in November 1861. It became trapped in the Savannah River after the fall of Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island, and did not sortie as a blockade runner again. Instead, it was converted to an ironclad of the casemate type, and renamed CSS Atlanta. It tried twice to break the blockade without success.
In June, 1863, Atlanta fought an engagement with two ironclads of the turreted type, during which the Confederate ship ran aground and was captured by the Union Navy. The ship was refloated, repaired, and commissioned in the Union Navy as USS Atlanta. It spent most of the remainder of the war in the James River, and was present when President Lincoln arrived to consult with General Grant at City Point in early 1865. After the war, the ship was laid up until it was sold to private interests supporting an insurrection in Haiti. The ship was lost at sea with all hands in late 1869, thought to be in the waters off Cape Hatteras.