USS Port Royal (1862)

USS "Port Royal" (1862) was a double-ended steamboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The steamboat was converted into an armed gunboat by the Navy, and assigned to patrol the rivers and other waterways of the Confederate States of America and to enforce the Union blockade on the South.

Built in New York

"Port Royal", a wooden, double-ended, side-wheel gunboat, was launched at New York 17 January 1862 by Thomas Stock, and commissioned at New York Navy Yard, 26 April 1862.

Civil War service

Departing New York 4 May, "Port Royal" steamed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to join the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in supporting General George McClellan’s drive up the peninsula toward Richmond, Virginia. She engaged Confederate batteries at Sewell’s Point, Virginia, 8 May and a week later participated in the attack on Fort Darling, Drury’s Bluff, on the James River below the southern capital. After General Robert E. Lee’s brilliant seven day campaign turned back McClellan’s thrust, "Port Royal" shifted operations to the North Carolina Sounds. She was part of the Union Naval force which reconnoitered the Neuse River, North Carolina, arid attacked Kingston, 12–16 December. The spring of 1863 found her operating along the Florida coast. On 20 April, a landing party from the ship raided Apalachicola, Florida, capturing cotton and ordnance. On 24 May a boat expedition captured sloop "Fashion" laden with cotton in the same area. The Union party also burned a ship repair facility at Devil’s Elbow and destroyed a barge. In ensuing months "Port Royal" continued to patrol the Confederate coast. In August 1864, she served with Rear Admiral David Farragut during the operations in Mobile Bay, Alabama. "Port Royal" then continued patrol duty through the end of the Civil War.

Post-war decommissioning

Decommissioned 23 May 1866, she was sold at Boston, Massachusetts, 3 October 1866.

ee also

* Union Navy
* American Civil War
* Battle of Drewry's Bluff

References

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* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/portroyl.htm USS Port Royal (1862-1866)]