USS James S. Chambers
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | date unknown |
| Acquired: | 4 September 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 16 December 1861 |
| Decommissioned: | 31 August 1865 |
| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Fate: | sold, 27 September 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 401 tons |
| Length: | 124 ft 6 in (37.95 m) |
| Beam: | 29 ft 3 in (8.92 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) |
| Propulsion: | sail |
| Speed: | varied |
| Complement: | 62 |
| Armament: | four 32-pounder guns |
USS James S. Chambers (1861) was a schooner acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
The Navy named the ship after James S. Chambers. He was appointed Navy agent for the Port of Philadelphia on August 10, 1861, by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was already a co-owner and editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin (then known as the Evening Bulletin). In 1860, one partner sold out and, with increased ownership, the co-owners voted Chambers publisher, a position he held at least as late as 1878 (also listed as publisher of the Philadelphia Day). Chambers was an unabashed support of Lincoln not only due to his own position as Navy agent but also because his aged father had been made superintendent of warehouses for the Philadelphia customs service.
James S. Chambers was a three-masted schooner purchased by the Navy at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 September 1861; and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 16 December, Lt. Dennis Condry in command.
The schooner sailed from Philadelphia 6 days later and joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron at Ship Island, Mississippi, 23 January 1862. Her diligent service in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Florida coast was first rewarded on 23 August when she captured blockade-running schooner Corelia with a cargo of supplies badly needed by the South. Two days later she took Confederate steamer Union attempting to escape with a cargo of 350 bales of cotton.
James S. Chambers scored again on 4 March 1863 -- the second anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's inauguration—when men from her whaleboats boarded and took Spanish sloop Relampago with a cargo of coffee, liquors, and soldiers shoes.
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