USS Canandaigua (1862)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Canandaigua.
For other ships of the same name, see USS Detroit.
USS Canandaigua on November 19, 1870.
Career (US)
Name: USS Canandaigua
Namesake: Canandaigua Lake and Canandaigua, New York
Builder: Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Launched: March 28, 1862
Commissioned: August 1, 1862
Decommissioned: April 8, 1865
Recommissioned: November 22, 1865
Renamed: USS Detroit May 15, 1869
Namesake: Detroit, Michigan
Renamed: USS Canandaigua August 10, 1869
Decommissioned: November 8, 1875
Fate: Scrapped 1884
General characteristics
Type:Sloop-of-war
Displacement:1,395 long tons (1,417 t)
Length:228 ft (69 m)
Beam:38 ft 5 in (11.71 m)
Draft:15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion:Sail, with steam engine screw
Speed:10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Armament:2 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore guns, 1 × 8 in (200 mm) smoothbore gun, 3 × 20-pounder rifles

USS Canandaigua (1862) was a sloop-of-war which displaced 1,395 long tons (1,417 t), with steam engine screw, acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War. After the war, Canandaigua was retained and placed in operation in Europe and elsewhere.

With her heavy guns (three of them rifled) and speed of 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h), she was an ideal and successful gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

Canandaigua — a screw sloop — was launched on March 28, 1862, by Boston Navy Yard, and commissioned on August 1, 1862, with Commander J. F. Green in command.

Union service

Canandaigua reported to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina on August 26, 1862, adding to the Union capability to isolate the Confederacy from overseas supplies. Off Charleston on May 15, 1863, Canandaigua took the sloop Secesh; later she destroyed another blockade runner, and aided in the capture of a schooner and a steamer in the same area. In addition to blockading, Canandaigua cooperated with Union Army forces taking part in the long series of attacks on positions in Charleston harbor in 1863–1864.

On February 17, 1864, she rescued 150 members of the crew of Housatonic when she fell victim to the historic attack of the Confederate submarine CSS H. L. Hunley.

Post-war service

Canandaigua sailed for the Boston Navy Yard on March 26, 1865, and was decommissioned there on April 8. Recommissioned on November 22, Canandaigua cruised on the European Station until February 1869, when she began three years of repairs at New York Navy Yard. She was renamed Detroit on May 15, 1869, but returned to her original name on August 10.

Her last cruise (1872–1875) was in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico with the North Atlantic Station's detachment there. Out of commission at Norfolk Navy Yard after November 8, 1875, she remained in ordinary until broken up in 1884.


See also

References