USS Arago (1861)

Career (US)
Name:	USS Arago
Namesake:	French astronomer and physicist Dominique François Jean Arago (1786-1853)
Builder:	Fardy and Brothers, Baltimore, Maryland
Completed:	1854
Acquired:	1861 (from United States Coast Survey)
In service:	circa October 1861
Out of service:	circa March 1863
Fate:	Returned to U.S. Coast Survey 1866
Notes:	Served in U.S. Coast Survey 1854-1861 and 1866-1878 Served in U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 1878-1881
General characteristics
Type:	Armed survey ship
Length:	81 ft (25 m)
Beam:	23 ft (7.0 m)
Draft:	4 ft 5 in (1.35 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Sail plan:	Schooner-rigged
Armament:	Weapons of unrecorded size and number

USS Arago was a schooner borrowed by the Union Navy from the United States Coast Survey during the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and used by the Union Navy as a picket and patrol vessel on Confederate waterways.

Construction and early United States Coast Survey service

Main article: USC&GS Arago (1854)

Arago was built for the Coast Survey in 1854 by Fardy and Brothers in Baltimore, Maryland. She served along the Atlantic coast of the United States.

Civil War service in the United States Navy

Early in the Civil War, the Coast Survey schooner Arago was ordered to report to Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont to assist him by conducting surveys and providing him with oceanographic data of the Confederate coast for guidance in blockade duty and amphibious operations.

Arago departed Eastport, Maine, on 15 October 1861 and proceeded to the New York Navy Yard at Brooklyn, New York, where she received weapons of unrecorded size and number.

Arago then joined the expedition destined to capture Port Royal, South Carolina. The information that she and USS Vixen obtained was invaluable to Du Pont during that successful operation, which provided the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron with its most important base for the remaining years of the conflict.

Few other records containing details of Arago's naval operations have survived, although it is known that she continued to serve the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron into February 1863.

Retuern to Coast Survey duty

Main article: USC&GS Arago (1854)

Apparently Arago left active naval service in 1863. She rejoined the U.S. Coast Survey in 1866, and served until 1881.

See also

• United States Navy
• American Civil War

References

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

• NOAA History: Tools of the Trade: Ships: C&GS Ships: Arago