USS Canandaigua (1862)

USS Canandaigua on November 19, 1870.
History
United States
Name	USS Canandaigua
Namesake	Canandaigua Lake and Canandaigua, New York
Builder	Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Launched	March 28, 1862
Commissioned	August 1, 1862
Decommissioned	April 8, 1865
Recommissioned	November 22, 1865
Renamed	USS Detroit May 15, 1869
Namesake	Detroit, Michigan
Renamed	USS Canandaigua August 10, 1869
Decommissioned	November 8, 1875
Fate	Scrapped 1884
General characteristics
Type	Sloop-of-war
Displacement	1,395 long tons (1,417 t)
Length	228 ft (69 m)
Beam	38 ft 5 in (11.71 m)
Draft	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion	Sail, with steam engine screw
Speed	10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Armament	2 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore guns, 1 × 8 in (200 mm) smoothbore gun, 3 × 20-pounder rifles

USS Canandaigua was a sloop-of-war which displaced 1,395 long tons (1,417 t), with steam engine screw, acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War. After the war, Canandaigua was retained and placed in operation in Europe and elsewhere.

With her heavy guns (three of them rifled) and speed of 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h), she was an ideal and successful gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

Canandaigua—a screw sloop—was launched on March 28, 1862, by Boston Navy Yard, and commissioned on August 1, 1862, with Commander J. F. Green in command. Canandaigua reported to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina on August 26, 1862, adding to the Union capability to isolate the Confederacy from overseas supplies. Off Charleston on May 15, 1863, Canandaigua took the sloop Secesh; later she destroyed another blockade runner, and aided in the capture of a schooner and a steamer in the same area. In addition to blockading, Canandaigua cooperated with Union Army forces taking part in the long series of attacks on positions in Charleston harbor in 1863–1864. On February 17, 1864, she rescued 150 members of the crew of Housatonic when she fell victim to the historic attack of the Confederate submarine CSS H. L. Hunley.

Canandaigua sailed for the Boston Navy Yard on March 26, 1865, and was decommissioned there on April 8. Recommissioned on November 22, Canandaigua cruised on the European Station until February 1869, when she began three years of repairs at New York Navy Yard. She was renamed Detroit on May 15, 1869, but returned to her original name on August 10. Her last cruise (1872–1875) was in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico with the North Atlantic Station's detachment there. Out of commission at Norfolk Navy Yard after November 8, 1875, she remained in ordinary until broken up in 1884.

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.