ANTIQUE BOATSWAIN ' S WHISTLE, USS/CSS UNITED STATES, WAR OF 1812
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:57397 |
ANTIQUE BOATSWAIN'S WHISTLE, USS/CSS UNITED STATES, WAR OF 1812 This is a great piece of American naval history! &n...bsp; Itis boatswain’s whistle that was found in the hold of the very famous Americanfrigate U.S.S.United States (& C.S.S. Confederate States) & dates from the War of 1812*1. FormerU.S. Navy & Confederate Navy Sail maker William Bennett was assigned as agunner on the ship in June 1861 & found it old frigate’s hold when the ship was being outfitted as a harbordefense ship by the Confederate Navy at the Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia This whistle has a copper (not brass) 4 5/8” mouth piece tube ontop of a 3/4” diameter round whistle that is attached to a 2 1/8” 7/16” flatarm & still has the wire lanyard attachment on the end. Bennett sent this whistle to his home in Virginia as a prizedartifact of his family’s history. as he had an ancestor that sailed & fought on board the ship in the famous battlewith the British frigate H. M. S. Macedonia on October 25, 1812 & was oneof 12 sailors killed or wounded that day. It is in good condition with a dark copper patina on the top mouthpiece & has a very dark greenish patina on the whistle & arm & is as found in the hold. This boatswain’s whistle & other artifacts from the oldfrigate were bought by the famous Virginia collector James Anderson direct fromthe Bennett family & had them on display in the Fort Hell Museum in Petersburg, Virginia. He considered these artifacts to be the center pieces of his very largeVirginia collection. He purchased over 1500 + artifacts from all over Virginia from itscolonial period through World War II (which he fought in!). It was bought directly from the Anderson Collection &comes with an Anderson Collection/Fort Hell Museum letter & a certificateof historicalaccuracy. *The United States had rotted away at Norfolk until 20 April 1861 when the navyyard was captured by Confederate troops. Beforeleaving the yard, Union fire crews failed to burn the vessel along with otherabandoned ships, thinking it unnecessary to destroy the decayed relic. TheConfederates, pressed for vessels in any condition, thought otherwise. They pumped her out andcommissioned the frigate CSS United States (though they oftencalled her Confederate States) on 29 April. On 15 June, she wasfitted out as a receiving ship with a deck battery of 19 guns for harbordefense. William Bennett had beena sail maker in the U.S. Navy before the war & resigned on May 18, 1861 toenlist in the Confederate Naval service in June 1, 1861. He was assigned to theUnited States now called the Confederate States in Gosport Navy yard until theold frigate was sunk in the Elisabeth River as a block ship in May 1862. Hewas one of the last sailors off the ship as it sank! He later served on theC.S.S. Patrick Henry & joined the Semmes Naval Brigade after the JamesRiver Squadron was destroyed on April 3, 1865. He reached Danville, Virginia on April 4, 1865 but was unable to continue with the brigade becauseof health problems. He return home when heheard of General Lee’s surrender, he never surrendered or took the oath ofallegiance! See the Confederate 12 pounder cannonball from this same ship& same collection listed separately.
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