USS Iroquois (1859)
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Iroquois |
| Builder: | New York Navy Yard |
| Launched: | 12 April 1859 |
| Commissioned: | 24 November 1859 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 June 1899 |
| Renamed: | Ionie, 30 November 1904 |
| Struck: | 26 August 1910 |
| Fate: | Transferred to Marine Hospital Service, 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Sloop-of-war |
| Displacement: | 1,016 long tons (1,032 t) |
| Length: | 198 ft 11 in (60.63 m) |
| Beam: | 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m) |
| Draft: | 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m) |
| Propulsion: | steam |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Armament: |
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The first USS Iroquois was a sloop of war in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Iroquois was launched by the New York Navy Yard on 12 April 1859 and commissioned 24 November 1859, Commander James S. Palmer in command.
Iroquois got underway from New York on 19 January 1860 for duty in the Mediterranean. Her service came at a time of political unrest in Europe, with the movement for Italian unification in its beginning stages. Iroquois sailed for Palermo, Sicily, to protect American lives and property as Giuseppe Garibaldi began his campaign to capture the island for Piedmont-Sardinia. The Italian patriot came on board Iroquois on 20 June 1860 and conferred with Comdr. Palmer. The ship operated in the Mediterranean into 1861, but the impending Civil War brought greater demands on the Navy and she was recalled.
Arriving 15 June 1861 at New York, she was immediately sent to the Caribbean to search out and destroy southern commerce raiders. At Martinique she found CSS Sumter anchored in the harbor. But the Confederate ship, under command of Raphael Semmes, with the assistance of French authorities slipped out on 23 November to resume attacks on Union shipping. Iroquois continued her patrol in the Caribbean. On 14 January 1862 she stopped British sloop Rinaldo. On board were Confederate ministers James M. Mason and John Slidell, captured earlier by Union ships but released; Comdr. Palmer allowed them to proceed under surveillance.
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