Maffitt, John Newland, 1819-1886

John Newland Maffitt (1819-1886) was a United States Navy officer, Confederate Navy officer, blockade runner, and author. Maffitt was born in Connecticut; grew up in Fayetteville, N.C.; and retired to Wilmington, N.C.

John Newland Maffitt (1819-1886) was the son of Ann Carnic and the Reverend John Newland Maffitt, a Methodist minister. Young Maffitt lived in Connecticut until, at age five, he was adopted by his uncle, Dr. William Maffitt of Ellerslie near Fayetteville, N.C. In 1832, at the age of 13, Maffitt was commissioned a midshipman in the United States Navy. Following a cruise on the sloop-of-war St. Louis, he spent three years in the Mediterranean aboard the Constitution, a frigate, about which he later wrote a novel, Nautilus; or, Cruising under Canvas (1871). In 1838, Maffitt was promoted to passed midshipman, and, three years later, he became acting master of the frigate Macedonian .

In 1842, Lieutenant Maffitt was ordered to the United States Coast Survey. He spent more than fourteen years in hydrographic operations--mapping, graphing, charting, making soundings to determine water depths; plotting the location of shoals; determining the direction and velocity of currents; recording tidal observations; and recommending the placement of buoys, lights, and lighthouses. In 1857, Maffitt was placed in command of the brig Dolphin and ordered to capture pirates and slaves. He was the first American officer to capture a slaver with its cargo.

In 1862, Maffitt resigned from the United States Navy to join the Confederacy. Appointed a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy, he served as a naval aide to General Robert E. Lee while preparations for the defense of Savannah were in progress. In early 1862, Maffitt was ordered to the steamer Cecile to run the blockade with supplies for the Confederacy.

For a short period, Maffitt commanded the Nassau and later the iron-screw steam cruiser, the Florida . The crew of the Florida experienced an epidemic of yellow fever in which Maffitt's stepson, John Laurens Read, died. In order to rebuild his crew and refit the cruiser, Maffitt entered the port of Mobile by running the blockade in daylight. The bombardment from the blockaders was severe and the damage to the Florida was so great that Maffitt did not return to sea for more than three months. To prevent his escape, the Union Navy increased the blockading force near Mobile. Maffitt waited for a violent storm before setting out and used trickery to lose six pursuing blockaders.

Early in 1863, Maffitt was promoted to the rank of commander in the Confederate Navy for gallant and meritorious conduct in command of the steam sloop Florida. During his service to the Confederacy, Maffitt repeatedly ran the blockade to carry needed supplies and captured and destroyed more than seventy prizes worth $10 to $15 million.

In the summer of 1864, Maffitt was commander of the gunboat Albemarle at Plymouth. After southern ports were captured, he refused to surrender his ship to the United States. Instead, he returned his steamer, the Owl, to agents in Britain. He chose to remain in England, and, after passing the British naval examination, he served for about two years in command of the British merchant steamer Widgeon running between Liverpool and South America. Then, returning to America, he settled on a farm near Wilmington by 1868.

Maffitt was married three times. In 1840, he married Mary Florence Murrell in Mobile, Ala. Their children included Mary Florence (Florie) Maffitt Wright and Eugene Anderson. In 1852, in Charleston, S.C., Maffitt married Caroline Laurens Read, a widow with three children. They were the parents of John Laurens and Colden Rhind. His second wife died in 1859. In 1870, at her home in Wilmington, N.C., Maffitt married Emma Martin. They lived on his farm, located on the sound at Wrightsville Beach, and together worked on Nautilus; or, Cruising under Canvas and some magazine articles. They had three children: Mary Read Maffitt Borden, Clarence Dudley, and Robert Strange.

Maffitt died in 1886. In 1906, Emma Martin Maffitt published The Life and Services of John Newland Maffitt .

Note adapted from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography .