In the spring of 1862, when the American Civil War was about a year old, Adela – a fast, iron-hulled, sidewheel steamer which had been operating out of Belfast, Ireland, as a merchantman—was purchased by some now unidentified agent who planned to use her for carrying arms and other contraband cargo through the Union blockade to the Confederacy.
After a stop en route at Bermuda, the ship got underway on 4 July and headed for the island of New Providence in the Bahamas to take on her forbidden cargo at Nassau and to prepare for a dash through the Union blockade.
As the three speeding vessels approached New Providence, Quaker City hoisted the Stars and Stripes and fired a shell across Adela's bow, signaling her to heave to.
Finally, a sixth shot into Adela's beam persuaded her commanding officer, James Walker—a former master of the Cunard Line's famed sidewheeler Great Eastern – to stop.
A prize crew from Quaker City boarded the British steamer, and the Union warship towed the captured vessel to Key West, Florida, where she was turned over to the Admiralty court.
British authorities strongly protested this action by the Union blockaders, demanding the release of the ship and of two bags of mail which the prize had been carrying.
The ensuing protracted diplomatic relations delayed the United States attorney at Key West as he attempted to press charges against the ship, but did not save her from ultimate condemnation.
The Union case was strengthened by the fact that Adela's master removed the mail bags from the courthouse and destroyed their contents which was thereafter presumed to contain evidence of forbidden activity.
However, we do know that her active service began on or before 13 June 1863, for on that night Adela – commanded by Acting Volunteer Lt. Louis N. Stodder [a] left the navy yard, bound for Key West, Florida, to join the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.
Word of her new mission overtook her in the wee hours of the 14th while she was still in the vicinity of New York; and she cruised south as far as Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, overhauling and boarding every vessel that she encountered.
Welles wired Stodder instructions to resume the hunt; and, after getting underway again on the 20th, Adela sailed off Indian River Inlet, searching for USS Tacony.
Adela cruised unsuccessfully in that direction until her depleted bunkers prompted Stodder to change to a southwesterly course toward Port Royal, South Carolina.
Thus, the end of the threat from Lt. Read, the ship-hopping commerce raider, freed Adela to turn her attention back to her original assignment, service in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.
On the morning of the 16th, the two Northern warships moved in closer to Tampa, Florida, and, when some 2,000 yards from Fort Brooke, began bombarding the batteries which protected the town.
The guide who directed the Union sailors to the blockade runners, Mr. James Henry Thompson—a resident of Florida loyal to the Union—was so ill that he had to be carried on a litter.
Soon after participating in this successful but costly action, Adela moved to St. George's Sound, took station off the East Pass to that body of water before the end of October, and served well into the spring of 1864.
Adela, intending in the event of their being successful, to carry her into Mobile, or to burn her ..." Budd learned of this plan and, on the night of 12 May, landed an expedition from his ship and the schooner USS James S. Chambers near the town of Apalachicola, Florida.
This group of fighting Union sailors dispersed the Confederate forces as they were embarking and captured six of their seven boats, a large amount of equipment, and four of their men.
Following repairs in the navy yard there which lasted until late in March, the ship was assigned to the Potomac Flotilla, and she guarded the water approaches to Washington, D.C., during the troubled days following the assassination of President Lincoln.