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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Congress (V)

Contoocook-Class Screw Sloop:
  • Laid down in 1863 as the screw-sloop Pushmataha at Philadelphia Navy Yard
  • Launched, 17 July 1868
  • Renamed Cambridge, 15 May 1868
  • Renamed Congress 31 December 1869.
  • Commissioned USS Congress, 4 March 1870, CAPT. N. Harrison in command
  • Assigned as flagship for COMO J. Greens South Atlantic Squadron in 1870
  • In 1871 Congress served as flagship for VADM Rowan, while hosting a visiting Russian squadron
  • Joined the Mediterranean Squadron, in February 1872
  • After visiting the Centennial Exposition of 1876 at Philadelphia Congress was decommissioned, 26 July 1876
  • Laid up in ordinary until 20 September 1883 when she was sold
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 3,003 t.
    Length 296' 10"
    Beam 41'
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Draft 15' 6"
    Speed 13 kts.
    Complement 250
    Armament
    As Built
    eight 9" smoothbores
    one 60-pdr muzzle loading rifle
    1878 total
    fourteen 9" smoothbores
    two 60-pdr muzzle loading rifles
    Propulsion
    two Morris Towne & Co, Philadelphia, PA., horizontal back-acting condensing engines (60" x 3')
    four boilers
    single propeller, IHP 1,220 = 13 kts
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Congress 71k USS Congress (V), date and location unknown.
    US Navy photo from "Warships of the Civil War Navies" by Paul H. Silverstone.    		 Robert Hurst
    Congress
    098648102    		 102k USS Congress (V) (left) arrived at Disco Island, 10 August 1871, carrying extra supplies for Charles Francis Hall's Arctic expedition aboard Polaris, which steamed away on August 17.
    Harper's Weekly, May 1873    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Congress (V)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 8 October 2021