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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Larkspur (I)


Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Campaign Medal

Screw Steamer-Tug:
  • Built in 1863 as the wood steamer Pontiac at Wilmington, DE.
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Purchased for the Navy by COMO. C.K. Stribling at Wilmington, DE. from W. A. James & Co., 6 October 1863, for $31,000
  • Delivered to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA., 12 October 1863
  • Commissioned USS Larkspur, 16 October 1863, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Acting ENS. Francis B. Davis in command
  • USS Larkspur was assigned to the South Atlantic Blocking Squadron and had arrived Port Royal, S.C., by 1 November
  • She served there during most of the remainder of the Civil War towing and repairing the ships of the blockade, steaming along the Confederate coast gathering information about activity ashore, carrying messages between ships of the squadron, and providing countless other services which helped the Union Navy to strangle the South
  • On 8 December she was ordered to St. Simon's Sound, GA., to seek word of General Sherman's army which was expected to emerge from the Georgia hinterland ending his famous march to the sea
  • Four days later she was sent to Savannah to assist the Union Army after it reached the sea
  • During the remainder of the war the tug operated at Charleston and Port Royal
  • She departed Port Royal, 27 June 1865, for Philadelphia, where she decommissioned 8 July 1865
  • Sold at public auction at Philadelphia 10 August for $8,100
  • Redocumented Larkspur, 5 September 1865
  • Renamed M. Vandercook 13 September 1883 and again renamed Somerville, 27 April 1898
  • Final Disposition, abandoned in 1905
    Specifications:
    Displacement 125 t.
    Length 90'9"
    Beam 19'2"
    Depth of Hold 7'3"
    Draft unknown
    Speed 9kts
    Complement 26
    Armament
    one 12-pdr howitzer
    one 12-pdr rifle
    Propulsion
    one vertical steam engine; cylinder diameter 26" stroke 28"
    one boiler
    single screw

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    Larkspur (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 15 July 2022