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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # NH 66950:  Steamship Caledonia.  Artwork by Erik Heyl

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- CIVILIAN SHIPS --

Steamship Caledonia (1853-1869).
Served as USS Mohawk in 1859-1864 and was later SS Alliance

Caledonia, a 459-ton (burden) screw steamship, was built in 1853 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was chartered by the Navy in September 1858 and served under her original name during the Paraguay expedition in late 1858 and early 1859. The Navy purchased Caledonia in June 1859, some months after she returned to the U.S., and renamed her Mohawk. Commissioned in September of that year, she operated along the East Coast and in the Caribbean area into 1861, capturing the slave ship Wildfire in April 1860 and helping to secure U.S. Government properties in Florida waters as the secession crisis grew in late 1860 and early 1861.

During the first year of the Civil War Mohawk was assigned to the Gulf of Mexico, where she captured one sailing blockade runner in July 1861. Departing the Gulf in April 1862, she was next sent to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, which operated along the eastern shores of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Mohawk was employed as guardship at Port Royal, S.C., after June 1863. Sent north for repairs a year later, she was found to be not worth the expense and was sold in July 1864. Subsequently renamed Alliance while in commercial service, she was wrecked at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, on 4 March 1869.

This page features our the only view we have related to the steamship Caledonia (1853-1869), which was USS Mohawk in 1859-1864.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 66950

Steamship Caledonia
(1853)

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, prepared for use in his book "Early American Steamers", Volume III.
Built at Philadephia, Pennsylvania, Caledonia was chartered by the Navy in 1858 and purchased in 1859. She served as USS Mohawk in 1859-1864 and later became the civilian steamer Alliance.

Courtesy of Erik Heyl.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 395 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 9 November 2003