USS Neptune (1863)

USS Neptune was a large steamer, with powerful guns and a large crew, acquired by the United States Navy for service with the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She served the Navy primarily, as an armed escort vessel in the West Indies for Union Navy and commercial ships traveling through that area on their way to and from California.

Allegany (formerly USS Neptune) in postwar merchant service
History
United States
Name: USS Neptune
Namesake: Previous name retained
Launched: 11 Feb 1863
Acquired: 17 July 1863
Commissioned: 19 December 1863
Decommissioned: 31 May 1865
Fate:
  • Sold 12 July 1865
  • Stranded 5 December 1865
General characteristics
Displacement: 1,244 long tons (1,264 t)
Length: 209 ft (64 m)
Beam: 34 ft 6 in (10.52 m)
Depth of hold: 20 ft 8 in (6.30 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement: 173
Armament:
  • one 100-pounder gun
  • two 30-pounder Parrott rifles
  • eight 32-pounder guns
Armor: wood
For other ships with the same name, see USS Neptune.

Acquisition and commissioning

Neptune, a wooden steamer, was purchased by the U.S. Navy at New York City on 17 July 1863 from William P. Williamson of the Neptune Steamship Company. She was delivered to the United States Government at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, on 3 September 1863, and was commissioned there on 19 December 1863.

Service history

Assigned to the West India Squadron, Neptune departed New York City on 9 January 1864 and operated principally in convoying steamers bound for California through the West Indies. At the end of the American Civil War in 1865, she returned to New York City, where she was decommissioned on 31 May 1865.

Fate

Neptune was sold at auction at New York City on 12 July 1865 to John Henderson. She operated briefly in commercial service before being stranded in fog off Long Island, New York, on 5 December 1865.[1]

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See also

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

  1. Gaines, W. Craig, Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks, Louisiana State University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8071-3274-6, p. 110.
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