USS Metacomet (1863)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Image:USS Metacomet (1863).jpg | |
| Career | Image:US unionjack36.png |
|---|---|
| Launched: | 7 March 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 4 January 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | 18 August |
| Fate: | Sold, 28 October 1865 |
| Struck: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,173 tons |
| Length: | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (10.7 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft 6 in (2.6 m) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 12.5 knots (23 km/h) |
| Complement: | |
| Armament: | 2 x 100 pounder (45 kg), 2 x 24 pounder (11 kg), 1 x 12 pounder (5 kg), 4 9 pounder (4 kg) |
The second USS Metacomet was a wooden side-wheel steamer in the United States Navy during the mid 1800s. The ship was named for Metacomet, a war chief of the Wampanoag Indians.
Metacomet was launched 7 March 1863 by Thomas Stack, Brooklyn, New York, and commissioned at New York 4 January 1864, Commander James H. Jovett in command.
Metacomet joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in the blockade of Mobile Bay and captured British blockade runner Donegal 6 June. On the 30th Glasgow forced blockade running steamer Ivanhoe ashore near Fort Morgan, whose guns protected the ship from destruction by the Union. Unsuccessful in efforts to destroy her by long-range fire from Metacomet and Monongahela, Admiral David Farragut ordered a boat expedition to attempt the task. Under cover of darkness, boats from Metacomet and Kennebec slipped in close to shore and burned the steamer.
Metacomet and 17 other ships entered Mobile Bay in a double column 5 August. In the ensuing battle Metacomet and other Union ships captured Confederate ram Tennessee, a major threat to the blockaders at Mobile. Farragut's ships maintained a heavy fire on Fort Morgan and Confederate gunboats, capturing CSS Selma. Metacomet then rescued survivors from Union monitor Tecumseh, sunk by a Confederate torpedo.
With Mobile in Union hands, Metacomet steamed to the Texas coast and captured blockade runner Susanna off Campechy Banks 28 November, and took schooner Sea Witch and sloop Lilly off Galveston 31 December and 6 January 1865, respectively.
Mines, then called "torpedoes", remained a danger to shipping in waters near Mobile even after that southern port had fallen to the Union so Metacomet returned there to drag the Bay and Blakely Channel 9 March through 12 April 1865. Returning north after the end of the conflict, Metacomet decommissioned at Philadelphia 18 August and was sold there to John Roach & Sons, 28 October 1865.
[edit] See also
See USS Metacomet for other ships of this name.
[edit] References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
