USS Supply after the Civil War
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Class: SUPPLY
Design: Sail (ship)
Displacement (tons): 547 (tonnage)
Dimensions (feet): 141.0' x 29.0' x 16.5' max
Original Armament: 4-24pdr carronades (1850)
Later armaments: 4-32pdr (1861); 4-32pdr 1-12pdr rifle (1862);
2-20pdr Parrott rifles, 2-24pdr howitzers (1863)
Complement: 40
Speed (kts.): --
Propulsion (HP): N/A
Machinery: Sail, ship rig
Construction:
| AF | Name | Acq. | Builder | Keel | Launch | Commiss. |
| -- | SUPPLY | 8 Dec 46 | Medford, Mass. | -- | 1846 | 19 Dec 46 |
Disposition:
| AF | Name | Decomm. | Strike | Disposal | Fate | MA Sale |
| -- | SUPPLY | 23 Apr 79 | -- | 3 May 84 | Sold | -- |
Class Notes:
This ship was built in 1846 at Medford, Mass., as CRUSADER for William Goddard, a Boston merchant. The new ship was purchased by the Navy Agent at Boston for $60,000 in late 1846 for use as a supply and store ship in the in the Mexican War. She was delivered at the Boston Navy Yard on 8 Dec 46 and renamed. Her average speed was 5 knots, but she could reach a top speed of 11.5 knots.
Between January and September 1847 SUPPLY supported the Home Squadron's operations against Mexico. In November 1847 she left New York for the Mediterranean with equipment and stores to be used in an expedition under Lt. William F. Lynch to explore and survey the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. She cruised in the Mediterranean while Lynch carried out his explorations, then re-embarked him and his party at Malta and reached Norfolk in December 1848. In 1849 SUPPLY transported the American consul to Tripoli and carried supplies to the American squadron in the Mediterranean. In January 1850 she sailed for California in response to the gold strike of 1849 and, after refitting at New York in 1852, she served in 1853 as a store ship in Commodore Perry's expedition to open Japan to foreign contact and trade. Returning to New York in February 1855, she sailed in June under the command of Lt. David Dixon Porter to the Mediterranean to obtain camels for experimental use by the army in the newly-acquired desert of the American southwest. Two trips were made for camels and their tenders. In late 1858 SUPPLY sailed to South America as part of the expedition against Paraguay, and a cruise on the Africa Station and duty on the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico then completed her pre-Civil War career.
Throughout the Civil War SUPPLY supported the blockading squadrons on the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. She took one prize, the schooner STEPHEN HART which was carrying arms and ammunition near Sarasota, Florida. After the war SUPPLY served in the Brazil Squadron in 1866 and in the Far East in 1867 and 1868. Her remaining years of service mainly involved trips to Europe, including trips to carry supplies to French citizens left destitute after the Franco-Prussian war and to carry exhibits to and back from both the Vienna Exposition and the Paris Exposition. SUPPLY was decommissioned at New York in April 1879 and was laid up in ordinary at Philadelphia. She was sold at Philadelphia in May 1884 to M. H. Gregory of Great Neck, Long Island.
Ship Notes:
| AF | Name | Notes |
| -- | SUPPLY | Ex merc. CRUSADER. Sold on 3 May 84. |
Page Notes:
AF 1846
Compiled: 06 Jul 2013
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2002-2013