USS Yucca (1864)

History
United States
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	1864
Acquired	25 February 1865
Commissioned	3 April 1865
Out of service	1868
Stricken	1868 (est.)
Fate	sold, 26 August 1868
General characteristics
Displacement	373 tons
Length	145 ft 7 in (44.37 m)
Beam	23 ft 7 in (7.19 m)
Depth of hold	11 ft 3 in (3.43 m)
Propulsion	steam engine screw-propelled
Speed	not known
Complement	not known
Armament	one 30-pounder Parrott rifle one 12-pounder smoothbore gun

USS Yucca (1864) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy security of Confederate waterways.

Commissioned in Boston shortly before civil war’s end[]

Yucca—a wooden-hulled screw steamer built in 1864 by Donald McKay at East Boston, Massachusetts—was purchased by the Navy on 25 February 1865 and was commissioned at Boston on 3 April 1865, Acting Master Henry C. Wade in command.

Assigned to patrol the Gulf Station[]

Commissioned just six days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia effectively ending the American Civil War, Yucca saw no combat in that or any other conflict. Her period of active service covered only three years, most of which she spent on the Gulf Station in the Gulf of Mexico. One sailor, Captain of the Hold John Robinson, was awarded the Medal of Honor for swimming ashore during a storm to aid Yucca on 19 January 1867.^[1]

Placed in ordinary[]

By 1868, she had moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she was placed in ordinary.

Post-war decommissioning and sale[]

On 26 August 1868, Yucca was sold at Portsmouth to Mr. R. M. Funkhauser.

See also[]

• American Civil War
• Union Navy
• Union Blockade
• United States Navy
• List of United States Navy ships

References[]

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