USS New London (1859)
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States
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| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1859 at Mystic, Connecticut |
| Acquired: | 26 August 1861 at New York City |
| Commissioned: |
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| Decommissioned: | 3 August 1865 at Boston, Massachusetts |
| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 221 tons |
| Length: | 125’ |
| Beam: | 25’ |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 9.5 knots |
| Complement: | 47 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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USS New London (1859) was a screw steamer of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was outfitted with a Parrott rifle and 32-pounders, and was assigned as a gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.
New London was built at Mystic, Connecticut in 1859, purchased by the Navy at New York City on 26 August 1861; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 29 October 1861, with Lieutenant Abner Read in command.
Ordered to the Gulf of Mexico on 2 November, New London, aided by USS R. R. Cuyler, captured the schooner Olive laden with lumber shortly before midnight on 21 November. Early the next morning, she took the steamboat Anna carrying turpentine and rosin from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana.
About dawn a week later, she took the steamboat Henry Lewis carrying sugar and molasses; and that afternoon she captured a schooner trying to slip through the blockade with naval stores for Havana, Cuba. On 28 November 1861 she captured USS A. J. View, which was later put into service in the U.S. Navy.
New London captured the steamer Advocate on 1 December; and the schooner Delight with sloops Empress and Osceola on 9 December. On the 28th the schooner Gypsy became her prize.
Operations on shore
Not content just to capture ships, New London, with USS Water Witch and Henry Lewis, rounded out her record on the last day of 1861 by sending a landing party ashore to capture Biloxi, Mississippi, destroying a Confederate battery and taking possession of two guns and the schooner Captain Spedden.
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Wikipedia