USS Keystone State (1853)
USS Keystone State
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Keystone State |
| Namesake: | The state of Pennsylvania |
| Builder: | J. W. Lynn, Philadelphia |
| Launched: | 1853 |
| Acquired: |
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| Commissioned: | 19 July 1861 |
| Decommissioned: | 10 June 1863 |
| Recommissioned: | 3 October 1863 |
| Decommissioned: | 25 March 1865 |
| Fate: | Sold 15 September 1865 |
| Notes: | Operated as merchant ship 1865-1879 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Gunboat |
| Displacement: | 1,364 long tons (1,386 t) |
| Length: | 220 ft (67 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 21 ft 10 in (6.65 m) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 9.5 kn (10.9 mph; 17.6 km/h) |
| Complement: | 163 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 2 × light 12-pounder guns, 2 × heavy 12-pounder guns |
USS Keystone State was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
Keystone State was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1853 by J. W. Lynn. She was chartered by the navy on 19 April 1861 from the Ocean Steam Navigation Co. at Philadelphia, and purchased on 10 June 1861. She commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 19 July 1861, Commander Gustavus H. Scott in command.
Chartered to search for the Confederate States Navy raider CSS Sumter, Keystone State shared in the capture of Hiawatha at Hampton Roads on 10 May 1861. When her charter expired on 23 May, she returned to Philadelphia, where she was purchased for $125,000 from Alexander Heron Jr., fitted out, and commissioned. She left the Delaware Capes on 21 July and cruised in the West Indies seeking Confederate blockade runners in Caribbean ports. On the high seas, she captured Saloon on 10 October and towed her to Philadelphia via Key West, Florida.
At Philadelphia, Commander William E. Le Roy took command of the ship on 12 November. The sidewheeler stood down the Delaware River and out to sea on 8 December, visited Bermuda, and arrived at Hampton Roads on 26 December 1861. She got underway on 9 January 1862, and joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Charleston, South Carolina on 13 January.
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