Background
John Newland Maffitt was born on February 22, 1819 at sea between Dublin and New York. He was the third child of John Newland Maffitt, a native of Dublin, and Ann Carnic.
(This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfec...)
This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.
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John Newland Maffitt was born on February 22, 1819 at sea between Dublin and New York. He was the third child of John Newland Maffitt, a native of Dublin, and Ann Carnic.
Three years after reaching America, the elder Maffitt entered the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Although he later became prominent in the ministry and in 1841 was chaplain of the House of Representatives, he was in such reduced circumstances in 1824 that he permitted his brother, Dr. William Maffitt, of Ellerslie, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, to adopt John Newland, Jr.
After four years in his uncle's home, young Maffitt was sent to school at White Plains, New York, where he remained until his appointment as midshipman in the United States Navy, February 25, 1832. He trained chiefly on the sloop-of-war St. Louis and the frigate Constitution and was promoted to passed midshipman, June 28, 1838.
Maffitt remained on sea duty, principally as acting master on the frigate Macedonian, until the spring of 1842, when he was detached and ordered to the Coast Survey. He spent sixteen years charting the New England and South Atlantic coasts. He was promoted to lieutenant as of June 25, 1843; but in 1857, he was placed on the reserve list on furlough pay by the retiring board, the reasons given being that his prolonged absence from the Navy had impaired his professional fitness.
This decision was reversed by a court of inquiry the evidence showing that his work as a chief of the hydrographic party had demonstrated not only a very high order of scientific ability but unexcelled efficiency as a navigator and disciplinarian.
Upon being restored to the active list, he was ordered to the Cuban station, on which he remained, except for a brief interlude in the Coast Survey office, until his resignation, April 28, 1861. He commanded the brig-of-war Dolphin and the war steamer Crusader, in which he captured the slavers Echo, Bogota, and William R. Kibby and the pirate brig Young Antonio.
On May 8, 1861, he was appointed a lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy. He performed three tours of duty in command of combat ships the gunboat Savannah, Port Royal Squadron, the cruiser Florida, and the ironclad Albemarle, stationed at Plymouth, North Carolina; three tours as captain in the blockade-running service on the transports Cecile and Theodora, on the Florie and Lillian, and on the Owl; and one detail on shore duty as engineer officer on the staff of Gen. Robert E. Lee, November 11, 1861, to January 7, 1862.
His last trip in the Owl striving to enter Confederate territory with an important cargo of government freight at Wilmington, and traversing the coast to Galveston before gaining a harbor was a classic in blockade running.
When he took command of Florida at Nassau she was only partially equipped, and he proceeded to Mobile to complete the equipment and recruiting. Through an inadvertence, no sights, rammers, or sponges had been provided for the guns, and he was unable to return the enemy's fire.
The crew, furthermore, was in such a state of decimation from yellow fever that his mad run through the blockading squadron into Mobile was an extraordinary achievement. He later captured twenty-two merchantmen and fitted out two tenders, which in turn made twenty-three captures. On July 8, 1863, he put to flight the U. S. S. Ericsson. His armament consisted of two 7-inch, and six 6-inch rifles and one 12-pounder howitzer.
For nearly two years after the war, he was in command of the British steamship Widgeon, which was chartered by Brazil as a transport in the Paraguayan War; and in 1870, he was for a short time in command of the Cuban Revolutionists' cruiser Cuba (Hornet). The remainder of his life was spent at "The Moorings, " near Wilmington, North Carolina, where he wrote a novel, Nautilus, or Cruising under Canvas, privately printed in 1871, and several magazine articles, among which were "The Life and Services of Raphael Semmes", "Reminiscences of the Confederate Navy" and "Blockade-Running". He left one uncompleted memoir on piracy in the West Indies.
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Maffitt was married three times: to Mary Florence Murrell of Mobile, Alabama, November 17, 1840, a marriage which ended unhappily; to Caroline Laurens Read of Charleston, South Carolina, August 3, 1852, who died in 1859; and to Emma Martin of Wilmington, North Carolina, November 23, 1870, who survived him.
His children by his three wives numbered seven. His second wife was a widow with three children, the youngest of whom was burned to death while the couple were on their bridal trip. His third wife was the sister-in-law of his eldest son.