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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Scourge (III)

Steamer:
  • Built in 1844 as merchant steamer, Bangor, by Betts, Harlan, and Hollingsworth of Wilmington, DE.
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Bangor was powered by twin screws and was the first iron-hulled, sea-going merchant vessel in the United States
  • Purchased by the United States Government, 30 December 1846
  • Commissioned USS Scourge, LT. Charles G. Hunter in command
  • USS Scourge joined COMO. Matthew Perry's squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, 29 March 1847
  • She was a part of the "Mosquito Flotilla" and was immediately assigned to take part in a concerted sea-land attack upon the port of Alvarado, 31 March 1847
  • Scourge, acting alone, captured Alvarado
  • Scourge subsequently participated in the capture of LaPena, Palmasola, Hospital Hill, Tuxpan, and Tabasco
  • Prior to the attack on Tabasco, LT. Lockwood, the commanding officer, became one of the first officers to protect a ship's exposed machinery by using sandbags
  • Decommissioned, date unknown at New Orleans, LA.
  • Sold, 7 October 1848, at New Orleans to a foreign buyer
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 231t.
    Length 120'
    Beam 23'
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Draft 9'
    Speed 10,5kts
    Complement 50
    Armament
    one 32-pdr
    two 24-pdr carronade
    Propulsion
    steam engines(s)
    boiler(s)
    twin screws
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    For Full Size Image    		 SizeImage Description Contributed
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    Scourge
    0986112401    		 143k Watercolor titled "BANGOR (merchant and naval steamer, 1844-1848)" by Erik Heyl, 1951/
    SS Bangor, built at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1844 - USS Scourge, 1846-1848. For more data, see: Erik Heyl, Early American Steamers, vol. I.
    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog # NH 85866    		  
    Scourge
    0986112402    		 243k Black and white photo of a color lithograph tittled "Mexican War - 1847"
    U.S. steamers USS Scorpion (II), USS Spitfire (IV), USS Vixen (IV) and USS Scourge (III), with 40 barges in tow, crossing the bar at the mouth of the Tabasco River, Mexico, 14 June 1847.
    Lithograph in colors, designed and drawn on stone by Lieutenant H. Walke, USN.
    ©Naval History and Heritage Command
    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog # NH 63783-KN     		 
    Scourge (III)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
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    Last Updated 12 August 2022