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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 59382:  Steamers E.B. Hale and Stars & Stripes fitting out for Navy service, 1861

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Stars and Stripes (1861-1865).
Later the civilian steamship Stars and Stripes and Metropolis

USS Stars and Stripes, a 407-ton (burden) screw steam gunboat, was built at Mystic, Connecticut, for commercial employment. The Navy purchased her new in July 1861, converted her to a warship and placed her in commission in September. Stars and Stripes initially served along the North Carolina Outer Banks, where she took a sailing blockade runner in mid-December 1861. In February and March 1862 she participated in the capture of Roanoke Island and New Bern. While on blockade duty during the summer she helped destroy the steamer Modern Greece and seized another sailing ship.

Following repairs in September 1862 Stars and Stripes was sent to join the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, which operated off western Florida. She was involved in the capture or destruction of additional sailing blockade runners in 1863 and took the steamship Laura on 18 January 1864. The gunboat was also active in raids to destroy Confederate salt works and other economic enterprises. Returning north after the Civil War's end, USS Stars and Stripes was decommissioned at the end of June 1865 and sold at auction in August. Under the names Stars and Stripes and Metropolis, she engaged in civilian trade until wrecked on the coast of North Carolina on 31 January 1878.

This page features our only views of USS Stars and Stripes and the civilian steamship Metropolis.


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 59382

"Propellers Hale, and Stars & Stripes"


Engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861, depicting the steamers E.B. Hale and Stars & Stripes fitting out at the New York Navy Yard, during the summer of 1861. Both were placed in commission as U.S. Navy ships in September 1861.

Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 177KB; 740 x 540 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59265

"Our Blockading Fleet off North Channel, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina."


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1863, page 76.
U.S. Navy ships depicted are (from left to right): South Carolina, G.W. Blunt, Daylight and Stars and Stripes.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 900 x 260 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 63850

Steamship Metropolis
(1861-1878)

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, 1952, painted for use in his book "Early American Steamers", Volume I.
Built at Mystic, Connecticut, in 1861, this steamer served as USS Stars & Stripes in 1861-1865. Sold for commercial use after the Civil War, she was renamed Metropolis in 1871 and wrecked in January 1878.

Courtesy of Erik Heyl.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 410 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 13 December 2003