USRC Woodbury (1864)
| Career (US) | 100x35px |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | as Mahoning |
| Laid down: | 1863 |
| Launched: | 1864 |
| Commissioned: | July 18, 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | July 19, 1915 |
| Struck: | 1915 |
| Fate: | sold, August 10, 1915 |
| Notes: | Originally USRC Mahoning until renamed in 1873 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Pawtuxet-class tender |
| Type: | Topsail schooner/steamer |
| Displacement: | 350 tons |
| Length: | 138' |
| Beam: | 27' |
| Draft: | 11' (5' 4" aft) |
| Propulsion: | steam engine, 2 cylinder, single 8' screw |
| Speed: | not known |
| Complement: | 7 officer, 34 enlisted |
| Armament: | 1 x 30 pound Parrott rifle, 5 x 24 pound howitzers |
USRC Levi Woodbury was a steam powered topsail schooner built for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. She was one of six Pawtuxet-class cutters that entered service during the American Civil War. Originally commissioned as the USRC Mahoning , she was renamed in 1873 to honor Levi Woodbury, the 13th Secretary of the Treasury. Woodbury also served twice as a U.S. Senator; an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; the 9th Secretary of the Navy; and as the 15th Governor of New Hampshire.
Contents
Commissioned in 1864 as a revenue cutter
Mahoning -- a steam-powered revenue cutter built in 1863 and 1864 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by J.W. Lynn & Sons—was placed in commission in the Revenue Cutter Service on 18 July 1864. The hull was made of oak and locust with iron diagonal bracing. The machinery was very complicated and difficult to maintain and as a result, of the six cutters in the Pawtuxet-class only the Mahoning was retained in service more than a few years.
East Coast operations
She patrolled the American coastline from Massachusetts to Maine for the major portion of her active career. On 5 June 1873, she was renamed Levi Woodbury. She continued her patrols of the New England coast through the last quarter of the 19th century.
Soon after the Spanish-American War broke out in April of 1898, the Levi Woodbury began operations under the U.S. Navy. Ordered to duty with the North Atlantic Fleet on 24 March, two days later, she received orders to report to Norfolk, Virginia, and arrived there on 2 April.
Known simply as Woodbury in Navy records, the revenue cutter conducted operations with the North Atlantic Fleet from 8 May to the end of hostilities in August. Though she may have participated in troop convoys to Cuba, the cutter's primary duty consisted of blockading the port of Havana, Cuba.
Control of the cutter was returned to the Revenue Cutter Service on 17 August 1898, and she returned to her former base at Portland, Maine, on 16 November to resume patrols of the New England coast. That routine occupied her for the next 17 years.
Decommissioning and sale
On 19 July 1915, the revenue cutter was placed out of commission at Portland. She was sold on 10 August to Thomas Butler & Co., of Boston, Massachusetts.
References
- This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935, Donald Canney, Naval Institute Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-101-7
See also
External links
- Ship infoboxes without an image
- Pages with broken file links
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
- United States Navy steamships
- Ships built in Pennsylvania
- Gunboats of the United States Navy
- Ships of the Union Navy
- United States Revenue Cutter Service
- United States Navy cutters
- 1864 ships
- Spanish–American War naval ships of the United States
