USS Shamokin (1865)

Career
Name: USS Shamokin
Namesake: The largest 18th-century Indian settlement in Pennsylvania
Builder: Reaney, Son & Archbold
Yard number: 34[1]
Acquired: 31 July 1865
Commissioned: 17 October 1865
Decommissioned: 24 December 1868
In service: 31 July 1865
Out of service: 24 December 1878
Renamed: Georgia
Fate: Wrecked off Costa Rica, 30 September 1878
General characteristics
Type:Double-ended gunboat
Tonnage:1,030 long tons (1,047 t)
Length:255 ft (78 m)
Beam:35 ft (11 m)
Draft:12 ft (3.7 m)

The first USS Shamokin was a double-ended gunboat built during the American Civil War at Chester, Pennsylvania by Reaney, Son & Archbold.

Service history

Naval service

Shamokin was delivered to the Navy at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 31 July 1865, and commissioned there on 17 October 1865, Comdr. Pierce Crosby in command.

Completed too late for service in the Civil War, Shamokin proceeded via New York to the coast of Brazil. After three years of service in the South Atlantic Squadron, protecting American citizens and interests along the coast of South America, Shamokin returned home and was decommissioned and laid up at the Washington Navy Yard on 24 December 1868. She was sold there on 21 October 1869 to a Mr. T. Clyde.

Commercial service

After an extensive rebuild for commercial service, Shamokin was renamed Georgia. Georgia operated for nearly a decade before being wrecked off Costa Rica on 30 September 1878.

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