USS Florida (1850)

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History
United States
Name	USS Florida
Acquired	by purchase, 5 October 1861
Commissioned	5 October 1861
Decommissioned	26 April 1867
Fate	Sold
General characteristics
Type	Sidewheel steamer
Displacement	1,261 long tons (1,281 t)
Length	214 ft (65 m)
Beam	35 ft 3 in (10.74 m)
Draft	22 ft 3 in (6.78 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine
Speed	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Armament	8 × 32-pounder guns 1 × 20-pounder rifle

The second USS Florida was a sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy.

Florida was purchased and commissioned on 5 October 1861, with Lieutenant John R. Goldsborough in command.

Florida stood out of New York Harbor on 19 October 1861 to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in patrolling the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. She helped capture a ship and a schooner who were running the blockade. Returning to New York during November 1862, she was decommissioned for repairs, and was recommissioned 7 March 1863 for service with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She was particularly successful in this assignment, capturing a steamer and a schooner off Wilmington, North Carolina, in June 1863, and aiding the destruction of a number of British steamers used as blockade runners in February 1864, including PS Fanny and Jennie.

Again out of commission for repairs between 12 December 1864 and 26 February 1865, Florida sailed 10 March with supplies for ships on station along the Atlantic coast. She proceeded through the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans where she embarked Confederate prisoners from the ram CSS Webb, transporting them to New York. Florida weighed anchor again to cruise the Gulf of Mexico until the end of 1865.

On her final voyage, Florida sailed in the West Indies from 4 January 1866 to 8 April 1867. She was placed out of commission for the last time on 26 April 1867 and subsequently sold.

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

• Keeler, William Frederick; Keeler, Anna Elizabeth Dutton; Daly, Robert Welter (1980). Aboard the Uss Florida, 1863–65: The Letters of Paymaster William Frederick. Ayer Publishing. p. 252. ISBN 0405130414.
• McNeil, Jim (2003). Masters of the Shoals: Tales of the Cape Fear Pilots Who Ran the Union Blockade. Da Capo Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-306-81280-0.

• The Ships of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd