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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Samuel Rotan

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Schooner:
  • Built as the wooden, center-board schooner Samuel Rotan, date and location unknown
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Purchased by the Navy, 21 September 1861, at Philadelphia
  • Fitted out as a gunboat at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
  • Commissioned USS Samuel Rotan, 12 November 1861, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Acting Master John A. Rogers in command
  • Assigned to the Gulf Blockading Squadron, USS Samuel Rotan performed blockade duty off the Mississippi passes
  • Captured Confederate privateer Calhoun, 23 January 1862
  • Re-assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, 20 January 1862, she was positioned primarily off St. Andrew's Bay
  • Re-assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in January 1863 after a period of repair at Philadelphia, the schooner was ordered to the York River for blockade duty
  • On 24 April, Samuel Rotan and USS Western World captured schooners, Martha Ann and A. Carson, off Horn Harbor
  • On 2 July, she took schooner Champion, off the mouth of the Piankatank River
  • On 27 July, her picket boat seized a canoe which had run the blockade from the Severn River, VA.,
  • On 10 October, her picket boat chased a yawl standing up the beach of Horn Harbor, VA.
  • Late in January 1864, after a period of repair at Norfolk Navy Yard she was back on blockade duty off the west coast of Chesapeake Bay
  • That autumn she was transferred to the James River to help support General Grant's operations against Richmond
  • Early in December 1864, she was back off the York River and served in that area into the spring of 1865
  • Decommissioned, 10 June 1865, at the New York Navy Yard, and sold there on 15 August 1865 to a Mr. Stannard
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 212 t
    Length 110'
    Beam 28'6"
    Draft 9'
    Depth of Hold 7'6"
    Speed unknown
    Complement 29
    Armament
    two 32-pdr
    Propulsion sail
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Westfield 103k "Commander Porter's Mortar Flotilla".
    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the mortar schooner flotilla commanded by David Dixon Porter during the April 1862 attack on the forts below New Orleans.
    Vessels shown are (from left to right):
    USS Westfield,
    USS Adolph Hugel,
    USS Para,
    USS William Bacon,
    USS Oliver H. Lee,
    USS C.P. Williams,
    USS Henry Janes,
    USS George Mangham,
    USS Racer,
    USS Horace Beals,
    USS Sarah Bruen,
    USS Samuel Rotan,
    USS John Griffith,
    USS Rachel Seaman,
    USS Maria J. Carlton,
    USS Sidney C. Jones,
    USS T.A. Ward,
    USS Sea Foam,
    USS Maria A. Wood,
    USS Octorara (Porter's flagship) and
    USS Matthew Vassar.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 59061    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Samuel Rotan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 12 May 2017