USS Wando (1864)
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States
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| Name: | USS Wando |
| Namesake: | Probably the Wando River in South Carolina |
| Launched: | 1864 |
| Acquired: | 5 November 1864 |
| Commissioned: | 22 December 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | 10 August 1865 |
| Captured: | by Union Navy forces on 21 October 1864 |
| Fate: | Sold 30 November 1865 |
| Notes: | In commercial service as SS Wando from 1865 until sunk in storm February 1872 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 645 tons |
| Tons burthen: | 468 tons |
| Length: | 230 ft (70 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Draught: | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Armament: |
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The first USS Wando was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. In commission from 1864 to 1865, she was used by the United States Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
Wando was built as the side-wheel steamer SS Let Her Rip in 1864 at Glasgow, Scotland, for use as a Confederate blockade runner in the American Civil War. Let Her Rip sailed under British colors until May 1864 when the Chicora Import and Export Company of Charleston, South Carolina, purchased her. In July 1864, after her first blockade-running trip into Wilmington, North Carolina, she was renamed SS Wando.
Wando was captured at sea off Cape Romain, South Carolina, by the Union side-wheel steamer USS Fort Jackson on 21 October 1864 as she attempted to slip away from the Confederate coast laden with cotton. The U.S. Navy purchased the ship from the Boston, Massachusetts, prize court on 5 November 1864, converetd her into a gunboat, and commissioned her as USS Wando at the Boston Navy Yard on 22 December 1864, Acting Master Frederick T. King in command.
Late in December 1864, Wando proceeded south for duty with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina, on 5 January 1865 and was stationed on blockade duty off Charleston in February.
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