USS Ashuelot (1865)
USS Ashuelot, circa 1874
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Ashuelot |
| Ordered: | June/July 1863 |
| Builder: | Donald McKay |
| Laid down: | 1864 |
| Launched: | 22 July 1865 |
| Commissioned: | 4 April 1866 |
| Fate: | Wrecked, 18 February 1883 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Gunboat |
| Displacement: | 1,370 long tons (1,392 t) |
| Length: | 225 ft (69 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
| Speed: | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Armament: |
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USS Ashuelot was an iron-hulled, double-ended, side-wheel Mohongo-class gunboat in the United States Navy. She was named for a river in New Hampshire.
The contract for the construction of Ashuelot was awarded in June or July 1863 to Donald McKay. Her keel was laid down at his shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts, sometime in 1864; and the ship was launched on 22 July 1865. She was delivered to the Boston Navy Yard on 30 November of that year; but, since the American Civil War had recently ended, the Navy's need for her services had diminished. As a result, Ashuelot — which had been designed for operations in the shallow rivers and coastal waters of the Confederacy — was not placed in commission until 4 April 1866, Commander John C. Febiger in command.
About this time, the new gunboat was chosen to join Augusta in escorting the double-ended monitor Miantonomoh to Europe. On the 11th, Ashuelot got underway to test her machinery and to assess her sailing qualities before joining her future consorts at New York. The three ships stood out from that port on 6 May and headed for Canadian waters. However, two days out, Commander Alexander Murray of Augusta — who commanded the little task force — dispatched Ashuelot to Boston, Massachusetts to await the arrival of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox, President Andrew Johnson's personal representative in carrying to Saint Petersburg the Joint Resolution of Congress congratulating Tsar Alexander II on having escaped unscathed from a recent assassination attempt. After embarking her distinguished passenger, Ashuelot got underway again, threaded her way through a field of icebergs that obstructed the approaches to the coast of Nova Scotia; and rejoined the flotilla at Halifax on 3 June. There, Fox — who wished to demonstrate the seaworthiness of monitors which, up to that time, had never crossed the Atlantic — moved to Miantonomoh for the voyage.
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