USS Aries (1863)
Sketch of USS Aries as she appeared after the Civil War
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 
|
|
| Namesake: | Aries (constellation) |
| Builder: | James Laing's Deptford yard, Sunderland, England |
| Laid down: | 1861 |
| Launched: | 1862 |
| Acquired: | 20 May 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 25 July 1863 at the Boston Navy Yard |
| Decommissioned: | 14 June 1865 at the Boston Navy Yard |
| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Captured: | by Union Navy forces, 28 March 1863 |
| Fate: | Sold in 1865 and Scrapped in 1908 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 820 tons |
| Length: | 201 ft (61 m) |
| Beam: | 27.8 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draft: | 15.7 ft (4.8 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: | 90 |
| Armament: |
|
| Armor: | Iron-hulled |
USS Aries (1863) was an 820-ton iron screw steamer built at Sunderland, England, during 1861-1862, intended for employment as a blockade runner during the American Civil War. She was captured by Union Navy forces during the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America, and was commissioned as a Union gunboat. Aries was named for the constellation.
Although sold by the United States Navy post-war in 1865, Aries — the first ship to bear that name for the U.S. Navy — continued her work in the merchant service for nearly half a century, before being scrapped in 1908.
The first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Aries, she was laid down in 1861 at Sunderland, England, by James Laing's Deptford yard. Built during the American Civil War in the hope that she would be purchased by persons planning to break the Union blockade of the South, this iron-hulled, screw steamer was completed in 1862 and sold later that year to Frederic Peter Obicino of London, England. She has resold, apparently sometime in 1863, to the Cuban firm, V. Malga & Cie, of Havana, Cuba.
Almost no records of her career as a blockade runner seem to have survived, but we know that Aries did enter that chancy business, for a Confederate report on cotton exports between 1 November 1862 and 31 May 1863 states that she carried 740 tons of cotton out of either Wilmington, North Carolina, or Charleston, South Carolina. The number of her voyages to the South is unknown; and, in any case, her efforts to supply the Confederacy ended on 28 March 1863.
...
Wikipedia