USS Narcissus (1863)

History
Name: USS Narcissus
Launched: July 1863
Acquired: by purchase, 23 September 1863
Commissioned: 2 February 1864
Fate: Sank, 4 January 1866
General characteristics
Type: Steam gunboat
Displacement: 101 long tons (103 t)
Length: 81 ft 6 in (24.84 m)
Beam: 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m)
Draft: 6 ft (1.8 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h)
Complement: 19 officers and enlisted
Armament: 1 × 20-pounder Parrott rifle, 1 × heavy 12-pounder

USS Narcissus — a screw steamer launched in July 1863 as Mary Cook at East Albany, N.Y. — was purchased by the Union Navy at New York City on 23 September 1863 from James D. Stevenson; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 2 February 1864, Acting Ensign William G. Jones in command.

Civil War

The new tug soon got underway south; and touched at Port Royal, South Carolina for fuel on 14 February, before pushing on to the Gulf of Mexico. She joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at New Orleans late in the month and was assigned to patrol and blockade duty in Mississippi Sound. On the morning of 24 August, she captured sloop Oregon in Biloxi Bay, Mississippi Sound, and took the prize to New Orleans for adjudication.

Subsequently ordered to Mobile Bay, Narcissus supported clean-up operations following the great Union naval victory there on 5 August. She struck a Confederate torpedo off Mobile in a heavy storm on 7 December and sank within 15 minutes without loss of life.

Raised in the closing days of 1864, Narcissus was repaired at Pensacola early in 1865 and served in the gulf as a dispatch boat through the end of the war. She departed Pensacola on New Year's Day 1866, was wrecked, and sank at Egmont Key, Florida on 4 January with loss of all on board.

Consideration as Florida's twelfth Underwater Archaeological Preserve

In December 2011, The Bureau of Archaeological Research, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, initiated a proposal to dedicate the wreck site of the Narcissus as Florida's twelfth Underwater Archaeological Preserve.[1][2][3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ A Proposal to Establish the Shipwreck USS Narcissus as a State Underwater Archaeological Preserve. Bureau of Archaeological Research. Division of Historical Resources. Florida Department of State. Kurt S. Browning, Secretary of State. December 2011.
  2. ↑ A Proposal to Establish the Shipwreck USS Narcissus as a State Underwater Archaeological Preserve. Bureau of Archaeological Research. Division of Historical Resources. Florida Department of State. Kurt S. Browning, Secretary of State. December 2011.
  3. ↑ Florida's Museums In The Sea – Florida's Underwater Archaeological Preserves

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

Coordinates: 27°37′28″N 82°48′3″W / 27.62444°N 82.80083°W / 27.62444; -82.80083

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