USS Tacony (1863)
USS Tacony (far left) attacking Plymouth, North Carolina
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Tacony |
| Namesake: | A section of northeastern Philadelphia on the bank of the Delaware River |
| Builder: | Philadelphia Navy Yard |
| Laid down: | Date unknown |
| Launched: | 7 May 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 12 February 1864 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Decommissioned: | 7 October 1867 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Struck: | 1868 (est.) |
| Fate: | Sold, 26 August 1868 |
| Notes: | Double ended ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 974 tons |
| Length: | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine, side wheel-propelled |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 145 |
| Armament: |
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USS Tacony (1863) was a double-ended, side-wheel steamboat acquired by the Union Navy during the third year of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a heavy gunboat with powerful guns and used in the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
Built by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Tacony – the first ship to be so-named by the U.S. Navy – was launched on 7 May 1863; sponsored by Miss Ellie M. Wells, daughter of Lieutenant Commander Clark H. Wells, the captain of the yard at Philadelphia; and commissioned there on 12 February 1864, Lt. Comdr. William T. Truxtun in command.
The double-ender was assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and sailed south from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania soon thereafter, bound for Key West, Florida. She reached Newport News, Virginia, on the 15th and entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs to her steering machinery. While the steamer was undergoing this yard work, a dispatch arrived reassigning her to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
She departed Hampton Roads before dawn on the morning of 27 February, bound for the North Carolina sounds to strengthen Union forces afloat in those dangerous waters against the attacks by the Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle, then reportedly nearing completion up the Roanoke River. But for a brief run—via Norfolk, Virginia – to Washington, D.C. for repair, she served in the sounds until after the destruction of Albemarle on the night of 27 and 28 October.
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Wikipedia