USS Brooklyn
|
|
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name: | USS Brooklyn |
Namesake: | The City of Brooklyn on Long Island, later one of the five boroughs of New York City |
Builder: | Jacob A. Westervelt and Son |
Laid down: | 1857 |
Launched: | 1858 |
Commissioned: | January 26, 1859 |
Decommissioned: | May 14, 1889 at the New York Navy Yard |
Struck: | January 6, 1890 |
Fate: | Sold March 25, 1891 at the Norfolk Navy Yard |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Brooklyn |
Displacement: | 2,532 tons |
Length: | 233 ft (71 m) (at the waterline) |
Beam: | 43 ft (13 m) |
Draft: | 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m) |
Propulsion: | steam engine screw-propelled as well as ship-rig sail |
Speed: | 11.5 knots |
Complement: | 335 officers and enlisted |
Armament: |
|
USS Brooklyn (1858) was a sloop-of-war authorized by the U.S. Congress and commissioned in 1859. Brooklyn was active in Caribbean operations until the start of the American Civil War at which time she became an active participant in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.
With her one 10-inch gun and twenty 9-inch guns, Brooklyn was a formidable fighting ship that could deliver damaging broadsides, and served on the Atlantic Ocean coast as well as the Gulf Coast of the United States in intercepting blockade runners. Brooklyn also served gallantly attacking Confederate forts and other installations on the Mississippi River.
Post-war, Brooklyn remained active, serving for some years in the European theatre, as well as circumnavigating the globe. She was retired in 1889 and sold in 1890 after having well served her country for over three decades.
Brooklyn – the first ship so-named by the U.S. Navy – was the first of five screw sloops of war authorized by the U.S. Congress on March 3, 1857; laid down later that year by the firm of Jacob A. Westervelt and Son; launched in 1858; and commissioned on January 26, 1859, Capt. David G. Farragut in command.
On February 5, Brooklyn got underway for a trial run to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she arrived on the 11th. Following a week's visit to that port, she headed for the West Indies to investigate conditions in Haiti where liberal forces had ousted Emperor Soulouque and installed Fabre Geffrard as President.