USS Pursuit (1861)

Period watercolor by amateur artist
History
Name:	USS Pursuit
Acquired:	by purchase 3 September 1861
Commissioned:	17 December 1861
Decommissioned:	5 June 1865
Fate:	Sold, 12 July 1865
General characteristics
Type:	Barque
Tonnage:	600
Length:	144 ft (44 m)
Beam:	34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)
Depth of hold:	15 ft 1 in (4.60 m)
Speed:	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	100 officers and enlisted
Armament:	6 × 32-pounder guns

USS Pursuit was a bark purchased at New York City on 3 September 1861; and was commissioned 17 December 1861, Acting Volunteer Lt. David Cate in command.

Assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, she operated off the Florida coast, with several cruises to Cuba, during the course of the American Civil War.

Operating as named, she captured her first prize, the schooner Anna Belle, off Apalachicola, Florida 6 March 1862. In April she took the sloop La Fayette (4th) and the steamer Florida (6th), both in St. Joseph’s Bay near Pensacola, Florida, and on 28 May she ran down the schooner Andromeda off the Cuban coast. On 23 June 1863 she captured the sloop Kate at the mouth of the Indian River and, at the end of December, destroyed two salt works on St. Joseph’s Bay.

Pursuit took her final prizes, the cotton boat Peep O'Day and the British schooner Mary, in the Indian River, 4 December 1864 and 16 March 1865 respectively.

At the close of the American Civil War she returned to New York where she was decommissioned 5 June 1865 and sold 12 July 1865.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.