On This Day: Confederates capture ships

It was On This Day in 1862 that the Confederates captured the St. Nicholas on the Chesapeake Bay. The plan, laid out by George Hollins and Richard Thomas Zarvona, was to take the St. Nicholas and use her to marshal other Union ships.

Zarvona recruited a band of pirates who boarded the St. Nicholas as passengers. Hollins boarded separately. They surprised the crew and took the ship. Their original plan was to then take the Pawnee, a Union gunboat, but it had been called away. Instead the took three commercial ships.

Source:

This Day in History. History.com. 28 June 1862.

On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

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