Believe it or not, the first ship recorded with the name Ocmulgee was a 454-ton whaling ship, based in Edgartown, Mass., that was captured by the Confederate raider the CSS Alabama on Sept. 5, 1862. The second Ocmulgee was another 2,667-ton 313-foot-long passenger steamers custom built in 1907 for the New Brunswick Steamship Company at the Quincy Fore River Ship & Engine Company yards in Boston. On June 23, 1909, local newspapers reported that "The Brunswick Steamship Company's Ochmulgee ... has arrived at Galveston with cargo on fire ... (and is) ... in very bad order."