USS Tahoma (1861)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Name: | USS Tahoma |
| Laid down: | 1861 |
| Launched: | 2 October 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 20 December 1861 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 July 1864 |
| In service: | 13 April 1865 |
| Out of service: | 27 August 1867 |
| Struck: | 1867 (est.) |
| Fate: | sold, 7 October 1867 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Unadilla-class gunboat |
| Displacement: | 691 tons |
| Tons burthen: | 507 |
| Length: | 158 ft (48 m) (waterline) |
| Beam: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) (max.) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 200 IHP 30-in bore by 18 in stroke horizontal back-acting engines; single screw |
| Sail plan: | Two-masted schooner |
| Speed: | 10 kn (11.5 mph) |
| Complement: | 114 |
| Armament: |
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USS Tahoma was a Unadilla-class gunboat built by order of the United States Navy for service during the American Civil War.
Tahoma was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
Tahoma—a wooden-hulled, 4th rate screw gunboat constructed during 1861 at Wilmington, Delaware, by W. and A. Thatcher—was launched on 2 October 1861; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 20 December 1861, Lieutenant John C. Howell in command.
Assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, Tahoma remained with this force for her entire career through the Civil War. On 26 April 1862, while patrolling east of Sea Horse Key, Florida, the screw gunboat chased a schooner until the quarry ran aground where she was destroyed. Two months later, Tahoma raided St. Marks, Florida, burned a barracks and destroyed a battery of cannon before heading out to sea, unscathed.
While patrolling off the Yucatan Peninsula on 7 July, Tahoma captured the blockade-running schooner Uncle Mose, which had sailed unawares up to where the gunboat had anchored. Comdr. Howell later reported that the Confederate captain was astonished "at finding a man-of-war where we were anchored." The prize was laden with 115 bales of badly needed cotton.
After patrol duty in the late summer and early fall, Tahoma helped to destroy three important Confederate salt works. On the morning of 6 October, Tahoma, and Somerset lay to off Sea Horse Key and sent ashore a landing party of 111 men in eight boats. A pre-landing bombardment of shell, shrapnel, and canister fired from the howitzers mounted in two of the boats scattered some 20 to 30 armed Confederate guerrillas.
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Wikipedia