USS Don (1862)

Career (US)
Name: USS Don
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: date unknown
Acquired: 21 April 1864
Commissioned: 15 May 1864
Decommissioned: 18 May 1868
Struck: 1862 (est.)
Homeport: Washington Navy Yard
New York City
Captured: captured by the Union Navy, 4 March 1862
Fate: sold, 29 August 1862
General characteristics
Type: Cargo ship
Displacement: 390 long tons (400 t)
Length: 162 ft (49 m)
Beam: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Draft: 6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine,
screw-propelled
Speed: Unknown
Complement: 94
Armament: 2 × 20-pounder Dahlgren guns, 6 × 24-pounder guns

USS Don (1862) was a captured British steam-operated cargo ship acquired by the Union Navy from the prize court during the American Civil War.

She was put into service by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Contents

Capture of the vessel, conversion to Union Navy use

The British blockade runner Don was captured off Beaufort, North Carolina on 4 March 1862 by Pequot, and sent to Boston, Massachusetts for adjudication. She was purchased by the Navy Department and sent to Boston Navy Yard to be fitted for service, arriving on 21 April 1864.

Assigned to the Potomac River Flotilla

Don put out from Boston on 15 May 1864, under the command of Acting Master S. B. Gregory, to join the Potomac Flotilla. She patrolled the Potomac River and other waters in and bordering Virginia with her base at Washington Navy Yard until 26 September 1865, when she sailed for New York City.

Post-war service and decommissioning

Don remained at New York until 28 October, when she joined the North Atlantic Blockade Squadron to cruise on the coasts of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and in the West Indies. She returned to New York on 11 May 1868, was decommissioned there on 18 May 1868, and sold on 29 August.

See also

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links