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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Pensacola (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Screw Steamer:

Laid down, date unknown, at Pensacola Navy Yard

Launched, 15 August 1859

Commissioned USS Pensacola, 5 December 1859 for towing to Washington Navy Yard for installation of machinery;

Decommissioned 31 January 1860, at Washington, Navy Yard

Recommissioned in full as USS Pensacola, 16 September 1861, at Washington Navy Yard, CAPT. Henry W. Morris in command

Assigned to Flag Officer Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Gulf of Mexico

Decommissioned, 29 April 1864, at New York Navy Yard for the installation of new and improved machinery.

Recommissioned, 16 August 1866, USS Pensacola sailed round Cape Horn to join the Pacific Squadron

Decommissioned, 23 May 1884, at Norfolk, VA.

Recommissioned 4 April 1885, at Norfolk, VA.

Decommissioned, 18 April 1892, at Mare Island Navy Yard

Recommissioned, 22 November 1898, at Mare Island Navy Yard, serving as a training ship for Naval apprentices until going back into ordinary 31 May 1899

Recommissioned, 14 July 1901, to serve as receiving ship at Yerba Buena Training Station, San Francisco

Decommissioned, 6 December 1911

Struck from the Navy Register, 23 December 1911

Final Disposition, burned and sunk by the Navy in San Francisco Bay near Hunter’s Point early in May 1912

Specifications:
Displacement 3,000 t.
Length 130' 5"
Beam 44' 5"
Draft 18' 7"
Speed 9.5 kts.
Complement unknown

Armament

one 11" Dahlgren smoothbore.

sixteen 9" Dahlgren smoothbores

Propulsion steam

Size	Image Description	Contributed By
96k	Sketch of the Washington Navy Yard, looking north from off the waterfront in 1861. USS Pensacola is fitting out at left, near the western shiphouse. The eastern shiphouse is at right and the Commandant's Office is in the right center, next to the flagpole. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 91937 Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute Photographic Collection, 1981.		Robert Hurst
159k	Steam frigate USS Pensacola off Alexandria, VA., 1 January 1861. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, digital ID cwpb 00715.	Robert Hurst
76k	Steam frigate USS Pensacola in Alexandria, VA. just after fitting out and commissioning (circa late-1861). *Pensacola* was preparing to depart Alexandria and join Flag Officer David G Farragut's Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron in January, 1862. Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress.	Don Wagner
143k	Steam frigate USS Pensacola off Alexandria, VA. between 1861 and 1865. Library of Congress; LC-B8184-B864 (Lot 4182, no. 16)	Mike Green
134k	Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, based on a sketch by an officer of USS Mississippi depicting Commodore Farragut's Squadron and Captain Porter's Mortar Fleet entering the Mississippi River at the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi, circa 7 April 1862. Features identified in the engraving's title lines include (from left to right): Light-house on Southwest Pass; USS Colorado (in left foreground); USS Pensacola on the bar; USS Westfield (seen nearly stern-on); Porter's mortar fleet, heading up the river; USS Mississippi on the bar; USS Harriet Lane (side-wheel steamer at the rear of the mortar fleet); USS Connecticut (in right foreground); USS Clifton; town of Banona. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 59059	Robert Hurst
79k	"Panoramic View of the United States Fleet passing the Forts on the Mississippi, on its way to New Orleans, April 19th, 1862." Contemporary line engraving published in "The Soldier in our Civil War", Volume I. It depicts the Federal ships shortly before they began the passage of the forts, with the Confederate gunboats waiting upstream. Individual U.S. Navy ships (as identified in text below the engraving) are: USS John P. Jackson; USS Mississippi; USS Pensacola; USS Hartford (Flagship); USS Iroquois; USS Westfield; USS Cayuga; and USS Varuna; US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 59063	Robert Hurst
158k	"The Splendid Naval Triumph on the Mississippi, April 24th, 1862" Colored lithograph, published by Currier & Ives, 1862. The original print bears the following descriptive text: "Destruction of the Rebel gunboats, rams and iron clad batteries by the Union Fleet under Flag Officer Farragut. The attack was commenced on the 18th of April and continued until the 25th resulting in the capture of Forts Jackson, St. Phillip, Livingston, Pike and the city of New Orleans, as well as the destruction of all the enemy gunboats, rams, floating batteries (iron clad), fire rafts, booms and chains. The enemy with their own hands destroying cotton and shipping valued at from eight to ten millions of dollars. 'The sight of this night attack was awfully grand, the river was lit up with blazing rafts filled with pine knots and the ships seemed to be fighting literally amidst flames and smoke.'" In this view, ships are identified as (starting at top left center, up the river, running down to the right, then across toward the left): Confederate steamers; USS Cayuga (leading the Union column), USS Pensacola, burning confederate steamer, USS Varuna, USS Oneida, USS Mississippi (engaging the ram CSS Manassas), USS Richmond, USS Kineo, USS Hartford (flagship, in collision with a fire raft), USS Brooklyn and USS Winona. A Confederate fire raft is in the lower right. Fort St. Phillip is shown at right and Fort Jackson at left. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.	Tommy Trampp
137k	Line engraving published in "Virtue", depicting the battle, which took place on the lower Mississippi River during the night of 24 April 1862. A key to the forts and specific U.S. and Confederate ships is given at the bottom of the view. The ships include USS Varuna (in action with Confederate gunboats), USS Brooklyn, USS Pawnee (not shown), USS Hartford (Farragut's flagship, with a fire raft alongside), USS Pensacola, USS Mississippi, CSS Louisiana (exploding), CSS Manassas and Federal mortar vessels. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59071	Robert Hurst
950k	USS Pensacola in the Mare Island Channel circa 1866. File name Pensacola 1866.	Darryl Baker
594k	USS Pensacola crew looking forward in 1868 at Mare Island. File name: Pensacola 135091-3-76	Darryl Baker
2164k	CAPT. Paul Shirley on the bridge of USS Pensacola in 1868. File name: Pensacola 893-1868	Darryl Baker
84k	View looking along the waterfront of Mare Island Navy Yard during the 1870s, with the city of Vallejo on the opposite side of the channel. Ships tied up at the Navy Yard include USS Saranac (left), USS Independence (center), and a Revenue Cutter (right center). Moored offshore are USS California (left) and USS Pensacola (left center). The yard's floating drydock is in the right distance US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 68685, from the William H. Topley collection. Courtesy of Charles M. Loring, 1969.	Robert Hurst
130k	USS Pensacola at anchor in 1875 off Mare Island Navy Yard with the town of Vallejo, CA. in in the background.	Tommy Trampp
1833k	Mare Island Waterfront 1873-84. USS Pensacola is in the foreground Ships in the background from left to right are: USS Saranac, unidentified small ship (likely a revenue cutter), USS Vanderbilt (large side wheeler with her engines housed-over), several other unidentified ships at the yard's coal wharf and what appears to be the monitor USS Monadnock with main deck housed-over.	Darryl Baker
131k	USS Pensacola at anchor off Alexandria, Virginia, in 1886. US Navy photo from "Conways All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905".	Robert Hurst
1843k	Mare Island waterfront 1887-1901. USS Pensacola, mid photo, moored at the quay wall, at Navy Yard Mare Island, Vallejo, CA., in 1897. USS Mohican is in dry dock #1 (you can see her masts and bow). *USS Philadelphia* (C-4)** is moored in the channel; and USS Independence is aft of *Pensacola*.File name Mohican 1897-01, Navy Photo, November 1987	Darryl Baker
938k	USS Mohican (left) and USS Pensacola (right) moored at the Mare Island Navy Yard quay wall in 1987. A US Navy photo now in the collections of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum.	Darryl Baker
1084k	Broadside view of USS Pensacola off San Francisco circa 1891. File name: Pensacola 959 1890	Darryl Baker
251k	Steam frigate USS Pensacola firing her guns, date unknown.. Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress.	Bill Gonyo
93k	Port Broadside view of USS Pensacola moored pierside, circa 1890-1901, location unknown. Library of Congress photo # LC-D4-20089	Mike Green
1089k	Post card by A. Cruz of USS Pensacola at Yerba Buena Island circa 1898. Apprentices returning from a cruise. File name: Pensacola at Yerba Buena Island	Darryl Baker
1507k	USS Pensacola at the Mare Island sea wall circa 1898. File name: Pensacola D-17 1898	Darryl Baker
1259k	USS Pensacola moored in Mare Island channel circa 1898. File name: Pensacola NRL 10458 1898	Darryl Baker
1401k	View of the southern section of Mare Island Navy Yard in November 1898. The Ship at the quay wall (left) is USS Pensacola serving as a training ship. The yard's receiving ship USS Independence is seen below the boom of the 40 ton dry dock rail crane. *USS Monterey* (M-6)** is dry dock number 1. The shed below the 40 ton crane is the winch for the marine railway. File name: MINSY November 1898	Darryl Baker
135k	USS Pensacola officers from the book “U.S. Naval Training Station Yerba Buena Island” (1899).	Bill Gonyo
160k	USS Pensacola moored at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay while conducting an artillery drill in the foreground. From the book “U.S. Naval Training Station Yerba Buena Island” (1899).	Bill Gonyo
850k	Standard seabag issue (clothing and small stores) for Apprentice Seaman Fred H. Taylor, USN, Deck Division USS Pensacola, 1905. Henry Tramp changed his name to Fred H. Taylor because he was only 16 years old when he originally enlisted in the US Navy.	Keith Tramp, grandson of Henry Tramp