USS Arethusa (1864)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Arethusa.

Career (US)
Name:	USS Arethusa
Ordered:	as Wabask
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	1864
Acquired:	1 July 1864
Commissioned:	29 July 1864
Decommissioned:	3 January 1866
Struck:	1866 (est.)
Homeport:	Port Royal, South Carolina
Fate:	sold, January 1866
General characteristics
Type:	Collier
Displacement:	195 long tons (198 t)
Length:	110 ft (34 m)
Beam:	22 ft (6.7 m)
Draft:	8 ft 8 in (2.64 m)
Depth of hold:	9 ft 6 in (2.90 m)
Propulsion:	steam engine screw-propelled
Sail plan:	Unknown
Speed:	Unknown
Complement:	32
Armament:	1 × 20-pounder Dahlgren rifle 2 × two heavy 12-pounder smoothbore guns

USS Arethusa (1864) was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a collier in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

Commissioned in Philadelphia in 1864

Arethusa — a small screw steamer built in 1864 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Wabask — was purchased there by the Navy from Messrs. S. and J. M. Flanagan on 1 July 1864; and was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 29 July 1864, Acting Ensign John V. Cook in command.

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockade

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Arethusa arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina on 6 August 1864 and served as a collier there through the end of the Civil War, supporting the Union warships which were becoming ever more efficient in then-efforts to enforce the blockade of the Southern coast.

Post-war operations

Following the collapse of the Confederacy, the ship continued to serve at Port Royal assisting the Navy's efforts to demobilize the gigantic Fleet which it had built to prosecute the war.

Post-war decommissioning and sale

When most of the Union warships had returned north, Arethusa was decommissioned at Port Royal on 3 January 1866 and sold there later that month. Unfortunately, all trace of the ship's career after she left the Navy seems to have vanished.

References

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