The FAIRPLAY seems to have been a transport vessel in the service of the Army. A dispatch included in volume 23 of the Naval Official Records indicates that the captain and crew of the vessel were unattached to the service (of the Army), and, as such, no punishment could be meted out to them (for their negligence in allowing the vessel to be captured). This statement also seems to indicate that they managed to elude capture. Other statements relating to the capture of the vessel seem to confirm this. The prisoners that are mentioned in the official dispatches as having been captured, were obviously from an encampment of Louisiana troops along the shore where the vessel was docked.