A short distance past the town of Apalachicola, Florida, Smith found a sailing ship which had grounded inside the mouth of a creek.

Sent back to waters off the Apalachicola, Brockenborough — also spelled Brockenboro — served the East Gulf Blockading Squadron as a tender to the double-ended sidewheeler Port Royal and the former ferryboat Somerset.

The sloop, accompanied by Amanda's launch, struggled across the marshy waters of St. George's Sound for three days before reaching the Ocklocknee where Hoffner found "…a dismasted vessel lying close to [the river's] starboard bank…."

Some of the sailors fought back with a howitzer and muskets while their companions set fire to the prize before the whole Union party withdrew in Brockenborough and the launch.

Brockenborough soon returned to St. Georges Sound and, some two months later, was within signal distance of USS Port Royal, when boats from that ship captured the cotton-laden sloop Fashion on 23 May.

By 27 May, the wind had reached hurricane intensity and had created a shoreward, 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) current through the West Pass in St. George's Sound, threatening to drive Brockenborough ashore on the mainland where she and her crew would be at the mercy of Confederate forces.