USS Shokoken (1862)
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States
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| Ordered: | as Clifton |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1862 at Greenpoint, New York |
| Acquired: | 3 April 1863 at New York City |
| Commissioned: | 18 May 1863 at New York City |
| Decommissioned: |
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| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Fate: | sold, 25 October 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 709 tons |
| Length: | 181' |
| Beam: | 32' |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 10 knots |
| Complement: | 112 |
| Armament: |
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USS Shokokon (1862) was a large (709-ton) steamer with powerful 30-pounder rifled guns, purchased by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War.
With a crew of 112 sailors, she was employed by the Union Navy as a heavy gunboat outfitted to pursue blockade runners of the Confederate States of America, and to participate in river operations. When required, towards war's end, she acted as a minesweeper, removing Confederate naval mines from Northern Virginia rivers.
Shokokon -- a wooden-hulled ferry built as Clifton in 1862 at Greenpoint, New York -- was purchased by the Navy at New York City on 3 April 1863; altered for naval service there by J. Simonson; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 18 May 1863, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Samuel Huse in command.
The double-ender was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and arrived at Newport News, Virginia, on the morning of 24 May 1863. Shokokon was first stationed in the outer blockade off New Inlet, North Carolina; but, late in June, she was recalled to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and ordered up the York River to the Pamunkey River to threaten Richmond, Virginia, in the hope of diverting Southern reinforcements, munitions, and supplies from General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia which had invaded the North and was endangering Washington, D.C.
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