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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Tulip (I)

Screw Gunboat:
  • Chih Kiang, a wooden-hulled, steam lighthouse tender intended for the Chinese Navy
  • Constructed in the winter of 1862 by master shipwright James C. Jewett & Co., New York City
  • The ship was registered as having two decks, two masts, and a round stern with an eagle for its figurehead
  • Purchased by the US Navy, 22 June 1863, at New York.
  • Renamed Tulip fitted out as a tug and gunboat at New York Navy Yard
  • Commissioned, date unknown
  • During the Civil War USS Tulip was assigned to the Potomac River Flotilla in August 1863, at Washington Navy Yard as a tug and as part of the Flotilla protecting the nation's capital
  • In 1864 Tulip developed a defective starboard boiler and was ordered to return to the Washington Navy Yard for repairs
  • While enroute to the yard, 11 November 1864, the starboard boiler exploded off Ragged Point, VA., killing 47 crewmen instantly, with two of the survivors dying of their injuries at a later date.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 183 t.(lt) 240 t.(fl)
    Length 101' 4"
    Beam 22' 10"
    Depth of Hold 9' 6"
    Draft 11' 6" (loaded)
    Speed unknown
    Complement 57
    Armament
    two 24-pdrs
    one 20-pdr Parrott rifle
    Propulsion
    two horizontal, direct-acting two cylinder, steam engines
    two 15 foot long fire-tube boilers
    two propellers
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Tulip (I) 99k USS Tulip woodcut engraving titled "A Confederate Schooner Running Into the Federal Transport 'Chi-Kiang'." from an 1885 copy of Frank Leslie's "The Soldier in Our Civil War." Tommy Trampp
    Tulip (I) 128k "Disaster at Ragged Point" describes to loss of USS Tulip.
    Courtesy the Historical Marker Database.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Tulip (I) 286k
    Tulip (I) 128k Front and back of monument at St. Inigoes Creek, MD. honoring those who perished while serving in USS Tulip during the Civil War. Tommy Trampp
    Tulip (I) 116k
    USS Tulip (I)
    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 23 August 2013