USS Bazely (1863)
USS Bazely (at left) striking a mine.
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| History | |
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  United States
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| Ordered: | as J. E. Bazely |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1863 |
| Acquired: | June 3, 1864 |
| In service: | circa June 1864 |
| Out of service: | December 9, 1864 |
| Struck: | 1864 (est.) |
| Fate: | scuttled, December 1864 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 50 tons |
| Length: | not known |
| Beam: | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Draft: | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | not known |
| Complement: | not known |
| Armament: | not known |
USS Bazely (1863) (also designated Tug No. 2 and Beta) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy in a tugboat/patrol boat role in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
J. E. Bazely—a screw tug built in 1863 at Gloucester, New Jersey—was one of six similar vessels purchased at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the U.S. Navy on June 3, 1864 to support other Union warships in all the varied ways in which tugs assist larger ships. These vessels were also needed to help protect Northern men of war and Union Army transports against surprise attacks by Confederate rams, torpedo boats, or other novel craft which had been a cause of great concern since CSS Virginia’s first foray on March 8, 1862. The submersible H. L. Hunley’s sinking of the screw sloop of war Housatonic and the ironclad ram Albemarle’s destruction of the side wheel gunboat Southfield later underscored the dangers posed by such innovative Southern vessels.
When the U.S. Navy Department designated these tugs as patrol boats, J. E. Bazely became Patrol Boat No. 2. Her sister tugs lost their merchant names; and, thereafter, each was referred to by her new designation. In practice, however, for some reason Patrol Boat No. 2 continued to carry a shortened version of her former name, Bazely.
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