USS Penobscot (1861)

USS "Penobscot" (1861) was a steam operated gunboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockade

"Penobscot", built in ninety days by C.P. Carter, Belfast, Maine, was launched 19 November 1861 and delivered to the Navy at Boston, Massachusetts, 16 January 1862. Assigned initially to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, "Penobscot" destroyed her first Confederate vessel, the schooner "Sereta", grounded and abandoned off Shallotte Inlet, North Carolina, 8 June 1862.

On 1 August she seized sloop "Lizzie" off New Inlet and on 22 October British brig "Robert Burns" off Cape Fear. Again off Shallotte Inlet 3 November, she forced the British ship "Pathfinder" aground, then destroyed her. Continuing her patrol of the Carolina coast into the summer of 1863, she forced blockade runner "Kate" ashore at Smith’s Island 12 July.

Gulf of Mexico operations

Shifted then to the Gulf of Mexico, "Penobscot" joined the blockade ships cruising off the Texas coast. In early January 1864, she provided support for troops landed on the Matagorda Peninsula on 31 December. On 28 February she seized "Lilly", a British schooner attempting to run the blockade at Velasco, Texas, to deliver her cargo of powder, and the next day captured schooners "Stingray" and "John Douglas", outward bound with cargoes of cotton. On 12 July, off Galveston, Texas, the “ninety-day” gunboat intercepted the schooner "James Williams" with a cargo of medicine, coffee, and liquor.

"Penobscot’s" final operations of the war

By 1865 the Union stranglehold had achieved its purpose. The South was suffering for the materials necessary to wage war. On 18 February "Penobscot" made her last interceptions. She forced the schooners "Mary Agnes" and "Louisa" ashore at Aransas Pass and on the 19th sent a boat crew to destroy them.

Post-war activity and final decommissioning and sale

After the war "Penobscot" returned to the U.S. East Coast. She decommissioned at New York City 31 July 1865 and on 19 October 1869 was sold, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Nehemiah Gibson.

References

See also

* United States Navy
* American Civil War

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/p4/penobscot-i.htm USS Penobscot]