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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive USS Farallones
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USS USS Massachusetts (1849 - 1859, 1862 -1863)
USAT Massachusetts (1847 - 1849, 1859 - 1862)
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons
Civil War Medal
Screw Gunboat:
Built in 1845 as the the wooden auxiliary steam packet SS Massachusetts, by Samuel Hall, Boston, Massachusetts for Mr. R. B. Forbes
Launched, date unknown
SS Massachusetts helped pioneer commercial steamer service between New York City and Liverpool, England
Purchased by the War Department in 1847, assigned to the US Army Quartermaster Corps, placed in commission as USAT Massachusetts for service as a troop transport during the MexicanAmerican War
In 1848, USAT Massachusetts steamed round Cape Horn to San Francisco, California, possibly transporting some members of a Joint Commission of Navy and Army Officers who were assigned to explore the U.S. West Coast to identify potential sites for forts, lighthouses and buoys
Transferred by the US Army to the US Navy at San Francisco Bay, 1 August 1849 and placed in commission the same day, LT. Samuel R. Knox in command
Assigned to the Pacific Squadron, detailed for use by the Joint Commission
Due to the inability to hire crew members, Massachusetts along with the U.S. Survey Schooner USC&GS Ewing, William Pope McArthur in command, sailed to Hawaii for the winter of 184950 to acquire crew members from King Kamehameha III. When they returned in March 1850, the Joint Commission made its preliminary recommendations to President Millard Fillmore as to reservations of islands and lands around San Francisco Bay, then they and the Massachusetts sailed up to Puget Sound. After a cursory examination of the mouth of the Columbia River, the ship and the Joint Commission returned to California in July 1850. After a trip to San Diego, the Joint Commission made its final recommendation on November 30, 1850, by which time the Massachusetts either had begun regular Navy duties, or was transporting other personnel surveying the west coast.
Massachusetts departed San Francisco for the east coast 12 August 1852; steamed via ports in Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil; and arrived Norfolk, VA., 17 March 1853 and was decommissioned, 18 March 1853.
USS Massachusetts recommissioned at Norfolk, 2 May 1854, LT. Richard W. Meade in command
After fitting out, she departed for the Pacific Ocean 5 July, reached the Straits of Magellan 13 December, and arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 8 May 1855
During June and July she cruised the coast between San Francisco and the Columbia River; thence, she sailed for Central America 25 August. She showed the flag from Mexico to Nicaragua and returned to San Francisco 9 January 1856
Massachusetts departed Mare Island, 17 February 1856, with guns and ammunition for Seattle, WA., where she arrived 24 February
She operated in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca for more than a year, visiting ports in Washington Territory and the British Crown Colony of Vancouver Island
Massachusetts was sent from there to Port Gamble, Washington Territory on Puget Sound, where indigenous raiding parties from British and Russian territories had been harassing local Native Americans.
When the warriors refused to hand over those among them who had attacked the Puget Sound Native American communities, USS Massachusetts landed a shore party and a battle ensued in which 26 natives and 1 sailor were killed
USS Massachusetts decommissioned, 17 June 1857, at Mare Island Navy Yard, CA.
On 5 January 1859 Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey ordered the Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard to fit out Massachusetts prior to transfer back to the War Department
Turned over to the Army Quartermaster Corps in May 1859 and during the next few years cruised Puget Sound "for the protection of the inhabitants of that quarter",
The Quartermaster General of the Army ordered Massachusetts retransferred to the Navy, 27 January 1862
Subsequently, she was placed in ordinary at Mare Island and surveyed
Converted to a storeship with her engines removed, and re-rigged as a bark
Commissioned USS Farallones, 17 June 1863, Acting Master C. C. Wells in command
Farallones served as a storeship until February 1867 when she decommissioned at Mare Island
Sold at San Francisco to Moore & Co., 15 May 1867
Final Disposition, fate unknown Specifications:
Displacement 765 t.
Length 175'
Beam 32'2"
Draft 15'
Depth of Hold unknown
Speed unknown
Complement unknown
Armament four guns
Propulsion steam, single screw-propelled Click On Image
For Full Size Image Size Image Description Contributed
By 280k Illustration of USS Massachusetts underway under full sail. Robert Hurst USS Massachusetts (I)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
Last Updated 22 November 2019
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