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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Hydrangea

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Campaign Medal
Screw Tug:
  • Built in 1862 as the wooden steam tug Hippodame at Buffalo, N.Y.
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Purchased for the Navy by RADM. H. Paulding, 18 October 1863, at Erie N.Y., from C. W. Copeland for $33,000
  • Commissioned USS Hydrangea, 18 April 1864, at New York Navy Yard, ENS. C. W. Rogers in command
  • USS Hydrangea was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads, VA.
  • Hydrangea spent May towing monitors and acting as tender to the monitor USS Onondaga
  • The tug then took up station in the James River, where she acted as a tug and mail boat. Making two trips a day from Deep Bottom, near the front lines, to the large supply base at City Point, she helped support the Union efforts to break the military stalemate around Richmond
  • USS Hydrangea was then transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 23 July 1864. After repairing she reported to Port Royal, S.C., 30 September
  • USS Hydrangea was used as a blockading ship and tug inside the Charleston Bar until the end of the war
  • Hydrangea decommissioned at New York Navy Yard, 1 September 1865
  • Sold at public auction, 25 October, to S. and J. M. Flanagan ro $10,300
  • Redocumented Norman, 4 January 1866, she returned to private service
  • Final Disposition, stranded and lost off Cape May, N.J., 17 November 1886
    Specifications:
    Displacement 224 t.
    Length 120'
    Beam 20'3"
    Depth of Hold 9'6"
    Draft unknown
    Speed 11kts
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    one 20-pdr Parrott rifle
    two 12-pdr howitzers
    Propulsion
    one low pressure overhead steam engines, cylinder diameter 30", stroke 30"
    one boiler, flues returning through tubes
    single screw
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    Hydrangea
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 1 July 2022