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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Moccasin (I)
ex
 USS Hero (II) (1864)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Screw Tug:
  • Built in 1864 as the wood screw tug Hero at Philadelphia
  • Purchased by the Navy, 11 July 1864, from S. & J. M. Flanagan at Philadelphia
  • Commissioned USS Hero, 14 July 1864, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Acting ENS. James Brown in command
  • Renamed USS Moccasin, 25 July 1864
  • During the Civil War USS Moccasin was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron as guard ship off Fort Delaware, Pea Patch Island, DE.
  • Reassigned to the Potomac Flotilla, 13 March 1865, at St. Inigoes, MD.
  • Decommissioned, 12 August 1865, at Washington, D.C.
  • Sold, 18 September 1865, to the Treasury Department for service as a Revenue Cutter
  • Commissioned in 1865 USRC Moccasin and assigned to duty at Norfolk, VA,
  • In May 1866 her homeport was changed to Wilmington, N.C. where she served until being moved for repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1869
  • After repairs she was assigned to Newport, R.I. from 1869 to 1872
  • In 1872 she was transferred to Charleston, S.C.
  • Decommissioned in 1881 and taken to the Slater and Read Shipyard in New York City and was lengthened to 128 feet
  • Recommissioned, 10 April 1882, as USRC George Bibb and moved to the Great Lakes
  • George Bibb was named after the seventeenth Secretary of the Treasury, George M. Bibb
  • While winter quarters were at Ogdensburg, N.Y., she was also stationed at Duluth, MN., Detroit, MI. and Oswego, N.Y.
  • Decommissioned in November 1890 and sold in Buffalo, N.Y. for $2500
  • Redocumented as the merchant vessel Pentagoet
  • Final Disposition, foundered of Cape Cod, MA, November 27, 1898. Crew of 18 lost. Was bound from New York to Rockland, ME with general cargo

    Specifications:
    Displacement 192 t.
    Length 104'5" (1882)
    Beam 22' 3"
    Draft 9'
    Speed 10 kts
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    three 12-pdr rifles
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Moccasin
    098622201    		 218k Photo & data from Bowling Green State University Historical Collections of the Great Lakes John Spivey
    USS Hero (II) / USS Moccasin (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 5 September 2024