Off Cape Cod, Canadian Confederate sympathizers seize the American steamer "Chesapeake"

The 460-ton steamer Chesapeake sailed from New York to Portland, Maine the day before and was seized in the early morning hours.  At least sixteen Confederate sympathizers, largely from Nova Scotia, and led by Vernon Locke and John Brain, had posed posed as passengers and seized the ship, killing the second engineer.  The vessel was sailed to St. Johns in New Brunswick with U.S. Navy units in pursuit.  The incident precipitated a short-lived international crisis.  (By John Osborne) 
Source Citation
"Daring Act of Piracy," New York Times, December 10, 1863, p. 6. 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    US/the World
    How to Cite This Page: "Off Cape Cod, Canadian Confederate sympathizers seize the American steamer "Chesapeake"," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/41364.