USS Commodore Hull (1862)

	USS Commodore Hull
History
United States
Name	USS Commodore Hull
Namesake	Commodore Isaac Hull
Ordered	as Nuestra Senora de Regla
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	in 1860 at New York
Acquired	1 September 1862
Commissioned	27 November 1862
Decommissioned	8 June 1865 at the New York Navy Yard
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Fate	sold, 27 September 1865
General characteristics
Type	Gunboat
Displacement	376 long tons (382 t)
Length	141 ft (43 m)
Beam	28 ft 4 in (8.64 m)
Draft	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine; side-wheel propelled;
Speed	10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement	Unknown
Armament	2 × 30-pounder rifles, 4 × 24-pounder smoothbore guns

USS Commodore Hull (1862) was a ferryboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

Built in New York[]

Commodore Hull – a side-wheel ferryboat – was built at New York City in 1860 (or 1861^[1]) as the civilian ferryboat Nuestra Señora del Regla, intended for use at Havana, Cuba. Purchased by the Union Navy on 1 September 1862, she was converted to a gunboat and commissioned on 27 November 1862, Acting Master W. G. Saltonstall in command.

Commodore Hull was named in honor of Commodore Isaac Hull (1773–1843), a significant U.S. Naval commander during and after the War of 1812. There were four subsequent USS Hulls, all destroyers.

Civil War Service[]

Assigned to the North Atlantic blockade[]

Commodore Hull's ferryboat design made her especially useful for operations in sheltered waters, so she was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and operated along the coasts and rivers of Virginia and North Carolina. She took part in the siege of Washington, N.C. from 30 March – 16 April 1863.

In Albemarle Sound, she took part in the 5 May 1864 Battle of Albemarle Sound with the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle. As a picket, Commodore Hull was the first to sight the formidable ram approaching and fired at her from close quarters in the three-hour engagement.

Siege of Plymouth[]

Commodore Hull joined in the attacks on and the capture of Plymouth, N.C. on 29 October. On 31 October, she was heavily damaged by Confederate batteries, losing four killed and three wounded. Coxswain Patrick Colbert was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on that date. Colbert's Medal of Honor citation reads:

Served on board the U.S.S. Commodore Hull at the capture of Plymouth, 31 October 1864. Painfully wounded by a shell that killed the man at his side, Colbert, as captain of the forward pivot gun, remained at his post until the end of the action, braving the heavy enemy fire and appearing as cool as if at mere target practice.

End of service[]

Commodore Hull was repaired and remained active until the end of the Civil War. She was decommissioned on 8 June 1865 at the New York Navy Yard. Commodore Hull was sold at the Yard on 27 September. She was subsequently renamed to Waccamaw in civilian employment, which lasted until sometime prior to 1885. Abandoned on the Cape Fear River across from downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, the steamboat was burned to the waterline in 1886. Some of her remains (consisting of the engine bed, boiler foundation, portions of the lower hull and paddle wheel spokes) are still visible at low tide.

References[]

^ "USN Ships – USS Commodore Hull (1862–1865)". Retrieved 27 June 2006.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- "Commodore Hull". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Retrieved 27 June 2006.
"Medal of Honor - New York Civil War Recipients". Archived from the original on 28 May 2006. Retrieved 27 June 2006.
"Across the Cape Fear from Wilmington sit more than 30 wrecks". Retrieved 2010-01-22.

External links[]

US Navy Historical Image Collection for USS Commodore Hull

[1] "USN Ships – USS Commodore Hull (1862–1865)". Retrieved 27 June 2006.

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