#139: Commodore Josiah Tattnall and the Savannah Yacht Club
“Because blood is thicker than water, Sir.”
—Commodore Josiah Tattnall
Commodore Josiah Tattnall and the Savannah Yacht Club
Josiah Tattnall III was the privileged namesake son to an essential early Governor and Senator of Georgia. He was born just outside Savannah on the Bonaventure plantation in 1795. His life as an officer in the United States Navy tells a fascinating tale of American history as he sailed well beyond US borders over several oceans, seas, and continents.
Tattnall’s story includes his critical role in service to the Confederate Navy along Savannah’s coastal waters during the American Civil War.
Midshipman Josiah Tattnall’s service to the United States Navy began with the war of 1812 when he served on the Constellation and assisted in blocking the British from overtaking Norfolk, Virginia. In 1815, he served on the sloop Epervier in the Mediterranean Sea with Commodore Stephen Decatur to battle with Barbary Pirates in Algiers during the Second Barbary War.
In 1818, Lieutenant Tattnall sailed for the Pacific on the Macedonian, returning in 1822 to help suppress piracy in the West Indies. In 1832, in retaliation, he captured the Montezuma, a Mexican schooner that had illegally boarded and robbed an American ship on the high seas. And later, he commanded the steam gunboat Spitfire during the Mexican-American War in 1846. In March of that year, Josiah Tattnall sold the 600-acre Bonaventure plantation to Peter Wiltberger, who established the infamous Bonaventure Cemetery on the scenic bluff overlooking the Wilmington River.
While in Hong Kong in 1858, Commodore Tattnall took command of the United States East Asia Squadron. He soon violated American neutrality by assisting British and French forces against the Qing Dynasty in China during the Second Opium War. His explanation for this illegal action became his slogan: “Because blood is thicker than water, Sir.” Tattnall’s further Asian adventures involved his command of the Powhatan, carrying the first diplomats from Japan to the United States in 1860.
When the Civil war commenced, Tattnall became a senior officer in the Confederate Navy. In May 1862, he famously scuttled the CSS Virginia, the first steam-powered ironclad built by the Confederacy and constructed from the surviving hull of the USS Merrimack, a ship scuttled by the US Navy in April 1861. Tattnall later faced a court martial proceeding over that action but was acquitted.
When Savannah surrendered to William Tecumseh Sherman, who offered the city of President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift in December 1864, Josiah Tattnall was among those captured by Union forces and spent the remainder of the Civil War as a POW.
Formally organized in June 1876, the Savannah Yacht Club is on Bradley Point at the southern side of Whitmarsh Island, just a couple miles southeast down the Wilmington River from the Bonaventure Cemetery. The club succeeded the Regatta Association of Chatham County, formed in 1869.
Unsurprisingly, Josiah Tattnall served as the Savannah Yacht Club’s first Commodore.
I painted this scene en Plein air of these boats docked at the Savannah Yacht Club immediately after I enjoyed playing a tennis match with friends at the club. I saw the light. It was too perfect for words, and I had to grab it like a good night hug. A warm peach sunset is a favorite of mine to capture on canvas.
