USS Frolic
Confederate Blockade Runner Advance
Civil War Navy Ship

Advance (Blockade Running Steamer, 1863-1864)
Also called A.D. Vance

Advance , a 902-ton side-wheel steamer, was built at Greenock, Scotland, in 1862 for use as a River Clyde packet. Purchased by the State of North Carolina under the name Lord Clyde in 1863, she was renamed Advance (a name frequently given as A.D. Vance ), and put to work running the Federal blockade. She was one of the most successful Confederate blockade runners, making more than twenty voyages before her capture by USS Santiago de Cuba off Wilmington, North Carolina, on 10 September 1864. Taken into the United States Navy soon thereafter, she served as USS Advance until June 1865, when she was renamed Frolic .

USS Frolic operated as the Confederate blockade runner Advance from 1863 until her capture by USS Santiago de Cuba on 10 September 1864. Purchased by the U.S. Navy from the prize court in that month, she was commissioned as USS Advance in October 1864. During the rest of that year, and into 1865, she was active off the North Carolina coast and took part in the assaults on Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865. Advance went to New York in March 1865 and was out of commission there until June, when she was placed back into service and renamed Frolic .

Frolic was then assigned to the European Squadron as a dispatch vessel, a mission for which she was well suited by virtue of her small size and good speed. Arriving at Flushing, the Netherlands, in July 1865, she operated in northern European waters and in the Mediterranean until 1869. Again out of commission from May to September 1869, Frolic 's next active service was patrolling the North Atlantic fishing grounds in April-October 1870. After another period in reserve, she operated off New England for several months in 1872 and was then station ship at New York. In 1875-77, she cruised in South American waters as a unit of the South Atlantic Squadron. Decommissioned for the last time in October 1877, USS Frolic was sold in October 1883. She was a civilian ship, retaining the name Frolic , for a few years after that.

Confederate Blockade Runner Advance
Photographed at Nassau, Bahamas, in 1863.
confederate blockade runner Advance

USS Frolic
At Naples, Italy, circa 1865-1869.
USS Frolic Confederate raider Advance


Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65
The blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy





Confederate Ironclad
Confederate Ironclad 1861-65
Every aspect of Confederate ironclads is covered: design, construction, armor, armament, life on board, strategy, tactics, and actual combat actions.
Enfield Rifle
1860 Enfield Civil War Musketoon
This piece is a full-size non-firing reproduction of the rifle used in the Civil War. The body is made of European hardwood




Civil War Cannon Collectible
Civil War Cannon
Collectible Models and childrens playsets
Miniature Collectible Civil War Cannon12 pound Civil War field cannon replica weapon

Civil War Ships and Battles


Civil War Submarines

RAM Ships

Civil War Naval Timeline

American Civil War Exhibits

State Battle Maps

Civil War Summary

Civil War Timeline

Women in the Civil War

Battles by Campaign

Sid Meiers
Sid Meier's Civil War Collection
Take command of either Confederate or Union troops and command them to attack from the trees, rally around the general, or do any number of other realistic military actions.


Nation Divided
History Channel
Civil War A Nation Divided

Rally the troops and organize a counterattack -- Your strategic decision and talent as a commander will decide if the Union is preserved or if Dixie wins its independence
American Civil War Book Titles
Kindle Available
Naval Strategies

Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism
Compare and contrast the strategies of the Southern Secretary of the Navy, Mallory, against his rival in the North, Welles. Mallory used technological innovation and the skill of individuals to bolster the South's seapower against the Union Navy's superior numbers
Confederate Ironclad
Confederate Ironclad 1861-65
Every aspect of Confederate ironclads is covered: design, construction, armor, armament, life on board, strategy, tactics, and actual combat actions.
Kindle Available
Reign of Iron

Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack
The first ironclad ships to fight each other, the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack), were the unique products of American design genius

Battle on the Bay:
The Civil War Struggle for Galveston

Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war, despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world.
Kindle Available
Hunley the Confederacy Secrect Hope

The H. L. Hunley
The Secret Hope of the Confederacy

On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy  H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I "half a century later” would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight

Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65
The blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy
Union Monitor Civil War Ironclads
Union Monitor 1861-65
The first seagoing ironclad was the USS Monitor, and its profile has made it one of the most easily recognised warships of all time. Following her inconclusive battle with the Confederate ironclad Virginia on March 9, 1862, the production of Union monitors was accelerated. By the end of the year a powerful squadron of monitor vessels protected the blockading squadrons off the Southern coastline, and were able to challenge Confederate control of her ports and estuaries
Confederate Subs
Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861-65
Interesting information and many excellent illustrations. It addresses the CSA David class torpedo boats and the Hunley (and its predecessors), as well as Union examples such as the Alligator and the Spuyten Duyvil

Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles
Halls of Honor
Halls of Honor
The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War
Raise the Alabama
Raise The Alabama
She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France
Civil War
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
Conflict Begins
Civil War Journal
The Conflict Begins

These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.

 



American Military Gear Recruiter and History
United States Marines gear history and support of Semper Fi Fund

 

 

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress
US Naval Archives