USS Ascutney

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

USS Ascutney was a large steam-powered gunboat built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She carried heavy guns to help blockade Confederate waterways and, after the war, served briefly as a steamship for the Navy.

Service history
- Ordered in autumn 1862 and launched on 4 April 1863 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was delivered to the New York Navy Yard in June 1863 and commissioned on 28 July 1864 under Lieutenant Commander William Mitchell.
- On 1 August 1864, the Secretary of the Navy ordered Mitchell to visit fishing grounds near the St. Lawrence Bay to find the prize Electric Spark, believed to be CSS Florida, but the mission was not carried out. Three days later he was sent to Washington, D.C., en route to duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She arrived at Beaufort, North Carolina, on 21 August and then moved to waters off Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Ascutney joined the outer blockade of Wilmington. She was the first Union warship to spot CSS Tallahassee on 25 August, but Tallahassee escaped at 17 knots, aided by a breakdown in Ascutney’s engine.
- After a survey, she was towed to the Washington Navy Yard and decommissioned on 22 September 1864. She received extensive repairs and remained in order through the end of the Civil War.
- Recommissioned on 19 October 1865, Ascutney was based at the Washington Navy Yard and carried cargo and passengers in the Chesapeake Bay area and along the Atlantic coast from New York City to the Virginia Capes.
- She was decommissioned again on 1 August 1868 and sold on 28 October 1868 to John Roach. Since her name did not appear on merchant vessel lists and Roach was starting a large shipbuilding program, it is believed she was scrapped for materials.

General characteristics
- Class & type: Sassacus-class gunboat
- Displacement: 974 tons
- Length: 205 ft; Beam: 35 ft; Draft: 6 ft 8 in; Depth of hold: 8 ft 6 in
- Propulsion: steam engine, side-wheel driven
- Speed: not known
- Complement: 102
- Armament: two 100-pounder rifles, four 9-inch smoothbores, two 24-pounder howitzers, two 12-pounder howitzers