USS Tristram Shandy (1864) USS Tristram Shandy (1864) USS "Tristram Shandy" (1864) was a 444-ton steamer and blockade runner captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. With her Parrott rifle installed, she was used by the Navy as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederate States of America to prevent the South from trading with other countries. "Tristram Shandy" took her name from the hero—and the shortened title—of the novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman", which was written by Laurence Sterne between the years 1759 and 1767. She was a schooner-rigged, iron-hulled sidewheel steamer completed in
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman stylistic ends". A major influence on "Tristram Shandy" is Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Rabelais was by far Sterne's favourite author, and in his correspondence he made clear that he considered himself Rabelais's successor in humorous writing. One passage Sterne incorporated pertains to "the length and goodness of the nose". Sterne had written an earlier piece called "A Rabelaisian Fragment" that indicates his familiarity with the work of the French monk and doctor. Sterne was no friend of gravitas, a quality which excited his disgust. "Tristram Shandy" gives a ludicrous turn to solemn passages from respected authors that it incorporates, as