USS Fulton, a 698-ton (1011 tons displacement) side-wheel steamer built by the New York Navy Yard, was commissioned in December 1837. Often called "Fulton II", she served along the Atlantic Coast for nearly five years before being laid up in November 1842. Though she peformed a useful purpose as the Navy's first active steamer, Fulton was essentially a harbor defense ship and was unsuitable for the cruising missions then emphasized by Navy policy. Accordingly, the New York Navy Yard rebuilt her in 1851 as a much more conventional warship. Recommissioning in January 1852, she began service in the Caribbean area, with her operations at times extending northwards as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1858 and 1859 Fulton went to South American waters to participate in the Paraguay expedition. Later, she conducted anti-slave trading patrols off Cuba until damaged by grounding. The ship was laid up at the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida, in October 1859 and was still there in February 1861, when Florida authorities seized Federal facilities in the state. Though intended for service in the Confederate Navy, Fulton was instead destroyed to prevent capture when U.S. forces reoccupied Pensacola in May 1862.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Fulton (1837-1861).
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 30 March 2005