The ''Unadilla'' class was a class of

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

built for the

Union Navy The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were und ...

at the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

. Ships of the class were also known as "90-day gunboats" due to their rapid construction. The class was designed to be fully oceangoing while having a light enough

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...

to be able to operate close inshore, for

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which ar ...

duty or other operations in shallow waters. ''Unadilla''-class gunboats took part in many coastal and river operations, most notably as the bulk of the fleet which captured the vital Confederate port of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

blockade runner A blockade runner is a merchant vessel used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait. It is usually light and fast, using stealth and speed rather than confronting the blockaders in order to break the blockade. Blockade runners usual ...

s during the war— about 10 percent of the total number of Confederate blockade runners so neutralized. The ''Unadilla'' class was sold off quickly by the Navy at the end of the war, most of them going into merchant service. Little is known about their subsequent careers.

Construction and design

Development

With the outbreak of the

in April 1861, the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

was faced with an urgent need for light-draft gunboats able to operate both at sea and close inshore to help enforce the

Union blockade The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic ...

of Confederate ports. Since the Navy's Chief Engineer,

Benjamin F. Isherwood Benjamin Franklin Isherwood (October 6, 1822 – June 19, 1915) was an engineering officer in the United States Navy during the early days of steam-powered warships. He served as a ship's engineer during the Mexican–American War, and after ...

, had recently designed and overseen construction at the

Novelty Iron Works The Novelty Iron Works was an ironworking firm founded to make boilers in New York City. Located at 12th street, New York. The founder was the Rev. Eliphalet Nott President of Union College of Schenectady, New York. Eliphalet Nott had invented ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

of the engines for two similar gunboats, built for the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

, he had to hand a ready-made design suitable for the new U.S. Navy gunboats, which was accepted by

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

Gideon Welles Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878), nicknamed "Father Neptune", was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Although opposed t ...

.Sloan, pp. 30–31.Tucker 2006, p. 35. The two men agreed, as a time-saving measure, to award the first four engine contracts directly to the Novelty Works, dispensing with the usual tendering process; in the event the contracts for all 23 vessels of the class would be signed between 29 June and 10 July without

Congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

approval. As a result, the first four vessels of the new ''Unadilla'' class were completed in the remarkably short time of about three months, earning the class as a whole the popular name "90-day gunboats".

Contract distribution and cost

All ships of the class were built in privately owned shipyards along the Eastern seaboard. Six contracts went to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

shipbuilders, five to the State of

Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

, four to

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, three each to

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and one each to

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacen ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

. No individual shipyard built more than one ship. By contrast, reflecting the relative strength of the States' industrial bases, more than half the machinery contracts went to New York-based companies—seven to the Novelty Works, three to the

Morgan Iron Works The Morgan Iron Works was a 19th-century manufacturing plant for marine steam engines located in New York City, United States. Founded as T. F. Secor & Co. in 1838, the plant was later taken over and renamed by one of its original investors, C ...

and two to the

Allaire Works Allaire may refer to: Organizations *Allaire Corporation, a web development company acquired by Macromedia in 2001 *Allaire Iron Works, a 19th-century marine engineering company in New York City * Allaire Studios, a former recording studio in Glen ...

—while Pennsylvania companies accounted for another four, Massachusetts for three, Connecticut two and Delaware and Maryland one each.Silverstone, p. 49. Overall cost of the individual ships varied between $90,000 and $103,500, with cost of the hulls varying between $52,000 and $58,500. The largest price differential was for the machinery contracts, the first four of which, with the Novelty Works, were for only $31,500, as opposed to the $42,000 to $46,500 for the later ships.Kettell, p. 189. The difference is probably due primarily to the fact that the later vessels had 60% more

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

power than the original four. Total cost of all 23 vessels was $2,170,000.

Hulls

The hulls of the ''Unadilla''-class gunboats were designed by Samuel H. Pook, under the direction of the Navy's Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs, John Lenthall. The design was possibly based on the 1860 rebuild of , designed by Pook's father

Samuel M. Pook Samuel Moore Pook (August 15, 1804 – December 2, 1878) was a Boston-based American naval architect and father of Samuel Hartt Pook, the noted clipper ship naval architect. In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, Pook designed t ...

. The hulls were in length on the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

of , hold depth of and

of . Some details of the six New York-built vessels are available. These ships had frames,

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in B ...

s and

keelson The keelson or kelson is a reinforcing structural member on top of the keel in the hull of a wooden vessel. In part V of “Song of Myself”, American poet Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an Ame ...

s of

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ' ...

"of the best quality", with port

stanchion A stanchion () is a sturdy upright fixture that provides support for some other object. It can be a permanent fixture. Types In architecture stanchions are the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizo ...

s of

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumst ...

and

live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...

. The keels and keelsons were fastened with corrosion-resistant

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

bolts. The hulls were strengthened with diagonal iron braces, secured amidships "at the turn of the

bilge The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull. Internally, the bilges (usu ...

" and running upward at a 45° angle to the outer frames. The ship

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushr ...

s were also strengthened with iron strapping. According to some sources, ships of the class were built with unseasoned timber and would therefore have been expected to have short working lives.Silverstone, p. 51.

Machinery

The ships of the ''Unadilla'' class were each powered by a pair of

bore Bore or Bores often refer to: *Boredom * Drill Relating to holes * Boring (manufacturing), a machining process that enlarges a hole ** Bore (engine), the diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or a steam locomotive ** Bore (wind instruments), ...

, stroke horizontal back-acting engines, driving a single screw propeller.Silverstone, p. 50. As with the hulls, additional details for the machinery of the six New York-built ships are available; the machinery of the others was similar if not identical. The New York-built ships had two boilers each, of the Martin's vertical tubular type, placed side by side and spaced six inches apart. The boilers, "made of the best quality American charcoal iron", were 12 ft 3 in long, 8 ft 3 in wide and 9 ft 3 in high, with two furnaces each. The boilers were safety tested to a pressure of 60

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...

before installation. The engines were fitted with Sewell's patent surface condensers. The ships' propellers were four-bladed, and nine feet in diameter with a mean blade pitch of 12 feet 6 inches.Notes on Shipbuilding and the Construction of Machinery in New York and Vicinity"
''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'', New Series, Volume 5, Issue 26, p. 405, 1861-12-28. Sources vary as to the speed of the ships. Some give a speed of 10 knots, but 8 to 9 knots seems to have been the typical speed during the war. Recorded speeds vary all the way from 6 knots to 11.5 knots.See the ''

DANFS The ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'' (''DANFS'') is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy. When the writing project was developed the parameters for this series were designed ...

'' articles for the individual ships. In all likelihood, the performance of the vessels was less than ideal in wartime conditions due to infrequency of maintenance, particularly for the boilers.

Launch and commission

The first vessel of the class, ''Unadilla'', was launched on 17 August 1861, barely two months after the signing of the contract. The rest rapidly followed, with another three being launched in August, four in September, fourteen in October and the last one, ''Penobscot'', in November. ''Unadilla'' was again first to be commissioned, on 30 September, just 93 days after the laying of her keel. A total of eleven were commissioned before the end of the year, and another eleven by February 1862. ''Marblehead'' was the last ship of the class to enter commission, on 8 March. Though popularly known as the "90-day gunboats" then, only the first four vessels of the class were commissioned in anything like 90 days. The rest took an average of about three months just to launch. Overall, the ships averaged a little under six months from signing of the contract to commission.Calculated from Bauer and Roberts, pp. 74–75.

Armament and complement

Vessels of the class were initially armed with one Dahlgren

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without s ...

cannon; two 24-pounder smoothbores and a single 20-pounder

Parrott rifle The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War. Parrott rifle The gun was invented by Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point graduate. He was an American soldier and inv ...

. As the war continued, most of them were upgunned on an ''ad hoc'' basis, so that they ended up with a variety of different armaments. The crew complement is listed in some recent sources as 114 officers and men; however, ''

'' and other sources give varying figures for the individual ships, ranging from a complement of 65 (''Sciota'') to 94 (''Aroostook''), with an average per ship of 80. The reason for these apparent discrepancies is unknown.

Performance

Sources vary as to the performance of the ''Unadilla'' class. According to Bauer and Roberts, the ships "sailed well in a strong wind and handled easily but rolled badly."Bauer and Roberts, pp. 74–75. Gardiner is less generous, describing the vessels as "poor sailors; their machinery frequently broke down; the steering mechanism was inefficient; and they were slow; maximum speed being 8–9 knots."Gardiner, pp. 62–63. Thomas Main, a well-known contemporary engineer, criticized the engines of the class as "unusually heavy in all their parts", a common criticism of Isherwood's engines by private contractors. According to Main, the engines were fully 2.78 times heavier than required, leading to reduced efficiency and performance. Main notes that with a speed of only around 9 knots, the vessels were incapable of catching the faster blockade runners with speeds of 12 to 14 knots.Main, pp. 188-190, 205-206. Whatever their shortcomings, gunboats of the class were nonetheless to accumulate an "impressive" record of service during the war.

Service history

Though the main task of the ''Unadilla'' class was simply to enforce the blockade of Confederate ports in line with the

Anaconda Plan The Anaconda Plan is the name applied to a strategy outlined by the Union Army for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized a Union blockad ...

, many ships of the class also participated in related operations against Confederate forts and population centers along the Southern coastline and its rivers. These operations included shore raids and invasions, bombardments, and engagements with enemy land or naval forces.

Battle of Port Royal

The first major such operation involving ships of the class occurred after the U.S. Navy determined that a supply port deep in Confederate territory would be required in order to effectively enforce the

of the Confederate coastline.Browning, pp. 23–24. In late October 1861, a large fleet of 77 ships, including 19 warships—the largest fleet then assembled by the Navy—departed New York with the capture of

Port Royal, South Carolina Port Royal is a town on Port Royal Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 14,220 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort metropolitan area. Port Royal is home to Marine Corps ...

as its objective.Browning, pp. 27–28. On 4 November, four gunboats of the fleet, including the ''Unadilla''-class vessels , and , provided protection for the survey vessel as the latter made soundings in Port Royal harbor. The following morning, the same three ''Unadilla''-class ships and two other gunboats returned to the harbor to engage the Confederate forts and gauge their strength.Browning, pp. 30-31. On 7 November, the entire Naval battle fleet, including the three previously mentioned ''Unadilla''-class vessels along with a fourth, USS ''Unadilla'', engaged and defeated the two enemy forts, thus capturing the harbor. Port Royal would subsequently become a key supply port for the Union cause.Browning, p. 41.

Capture of New Orleans

The largest and most important contribution made by ships of the ''Unadilla'' class to a single operation was to the capture of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

David Farragut David Glasgow Farragut (; also spelled Glascoe; July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. F ...

, Commander of the

West Gulf Blockading Squadron The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic ...

, assembled a fleet of 17 warships including nine ''Unadilla''-class gunboats: , , , , , , , and .Tucker 2010, pp. 216-217. On the night of April 20, Farragut despatched three of his ''Unadilla''-class gunboats, ''Itasca'', ''Kineo'' and ''Pinola'' to remove the chains obstructing the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

below New Orleans. Though coming under heavy but inaccurate fire from Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the vessels were able to clear a narrow passage. On the night of the 24th, Farragut took the bulk of his fleet through the passage, though three of his ''Unadilla''-class gunboats, ''Itasca'', ''Kennebec'' and ''Winona'', became entangled in the river obstructions and were forced to turn back.Tucker 2010, p. 224. The rest of the fleet, however, continued on to New Orleans, which was forced to capitulate a few days later.Fiske, pp. 128-129.

Vicksburg campaign

The capture of New Orleans enabled Naval forces to move further north along the Mississippi to threaten the key Confederate city of

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

. Several ships of the class were subsequently involved in the ensuing

Vicksburg Campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi R ...

. For example, in June 1862, several vessels of the class were involved in the "run past Vicksburg" to link up with the naval forces of the upper Mississippi, although this action proved to be of little significance. In August, ''Cayuga'', ''Katahdin'', ''Kineo'' and ''Sciota'' were involved in the Battle of Baton Rouge, and ''Katahdin'' and ''Winona'' in the recapture of the city in December. Vicksburg was however far too well defended to be threatened by the Navy, and defeat of the Confederate forces in this theater of operations was ultimately left to the Army.

Other actions

The ''Unadilla'' class was involved in numerous other operations against enemy-held territory during the war, most notably the

Battle of Mobile Bay The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fl ...

in August 1864 and the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and Second battles of

Fort Fisher Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear Rive ...

in December 1864 and January 1865 respectively. The main duty of the class, however, was maintenance of the blockade along the Confederate coast. While vessels of the class were too slow to catch the faster blockade runners, they nonetheless accumulated an impressive record of prizes during the war, capturing or destroying no less than 146 blockade runners during the war—almost 10% of the total number of blockade runners neutralized by the Union blockade.Silverstone, p. 8. Silverstone gives a total of precisely 1,500 blockade runners captured or destroyed during the war. The 146 vessels neutralized by the ''Unadilla'' class therefore represents 9.7% of the total. The most successful of the ''Unadilla''s in this regard were , with 21 prizes; ''Kanawha'' with 19; and with 13 each; and and with 11 apiece.Silverstone, pp. 49–54. Only one ship of the class, ''Sciota'', was sunk during the war, but ironically this vessel was sunk on two separate occasions. The first occurred on 14 July 1863 when collided with ''Sciota'' on the Mississippi, sinking the latter in about 12 feet of water.Silverstone, p. 53. ''Sciota'' was raised and returned to service, but shortly after the war, on 14 July 1865—the day of Lincoln's assassination—''Sciota'' ran onto a mine in

Mobile Bay Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. Th ...

and was sunk a second time. Again she was salvaged, but this time only to be sold out of the Navy.

Postwar service

After the war, most of the ships of the ''Unadilla''-class were quickly decommissioned and sold into merchant service. Seventeen had been decommissioned by August 1865, and fifteen of these had been sold by the end of the year, with the remaining two, ''Seneca'' and ''Penobscot'', seeing no further naval service and being sold in 1868 and 1869 respectively. Some of these vessels were still in existence as late as 1885. Of the remaining six, ''Chocura'' and ''Tahoma'' briefly saw service with the Gulf Squadron in 1866-67 before being decommissioned and sold in the latter half of 1867; ''Marblehead'' saw service with the North Atlantic Squadron, and ''Huron'' in South American waters, until their decommission in late 1868 and subsequent sale. The last two vessels of the class to see service with the Navy, and ''Unadilla'', were transferred to the newly established Asiatic Squadron in 1867 and subsequently employed in the suppression of

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

along the coast of China. In June 1868, ''Unadilla'' became the first American warship to enter

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

's Chao Phraya River, bearing gifts from the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a D ...

, to Chulalongkorn,

King of Siam The monarchy of Thailand (whose monarch is referred to as the king of Thailand; th, พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, or historically, king of Siam; th, พระมหากษัตริย์สยาม) refers to the c ...

."The United States Steamer Unadilla in the East Indies"
''The Sun'', p. 1, 1868-09-01 (paysite). In 1869, both ''Aroostook'' and ''Unadilla'' were condemned as unfit for further service due to rotting hulls—a legacy of their construction with unseasoned timber—and they were sold shortly thereafter. ''Unadilla'' became the merchant ''Dang Wee'' and was sunk in a collision off

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in the fall of 1870; ''Aroostook''s later history, like that of most other vessels of the class, is unknown.

List of ships

''TABLE LEGEND: Name = name of ship. Builder = shipbuilder. Built = where built. Engine = builder of engines and machinery; abbreviations as follows: Allaire =

Allaire Iron Works The Allaire Iron Works was a leading 19th-century American marine engineering company based in New York City. Founded in 1816 by engineer and philanthropist James P. Allaire, the Allaire Works was one of the world's first companies dedicated to t ...

, NY; Highland = Highland Iron Works, Newburgh, NY; Loring = Harrison Loring, Boston, MA; Merrick = Merrick & Sons, Philadelphia, PA; Morgan =

, NY; Morris = I. P. Morris & Co., Philadelphia, PA; Novelty = Novelty Iron Works, NY; Pacific = Pacific Iron Works, Bridgeport, CT; Reaney =

Reaney, Son & Archbold Reaney, Son & Archbold was a 19th-century American iron shipbuilding company located on the Delaware River at Chester, Pennsylvania. The company was established in 1859 by Thomas Reaney (formerly of the firm Reaney, Neafie & Levy) but it was und ...

, Chester, PA; Reeder = Charles Reeder, Baltimore, MD; Woodruff = Woodruff & Beach, Hartford, CT. Launch = date of launch. Comm. = date of commission. Decom. = date of decommission. Sold = date of sale.'' ''Sources for the table: Bauer and Roberts, pp. 74–75; Silverstone, pp. 49–54.''

References

Bibliography

;Books * Bauer, Karl Jack and Roberts, Stephen S. (1991): ''Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants'', Greenwood Publishing Group, . * Browning, Robert M. (2002): ''Success Is All That Was Expected: The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil War''
pp. 21–42
Potomac Books Inc., . * Fiske, John (1900): ''The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War''
pp. 128-129
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. * Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1992): ''Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815–1905'', pp. 62-63, Conway Maritime Press, . * Kettell, Thomas P. (1875): ''History of the Great Rebellion''
p. 189
L. Stebbins, Connecticut. * Main, Thomas (1893): ''The Progress of Marine Engineering, From the time of Watt to the present day'', pp. 188-190, 205-206; The Trade Publishing Co., New York. * Silverstone, Paul H. (1989): ''Warships of the Civil War Navies'', pp. 49-54, Naval Institute Press, Maryland, . * Sloan, Edward William (1980): ''Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, Naval Engineer''
pp. 30-31
Arno Press, . * Tucker, Spencer C. (2006): ''Blue & Gray Navies: The Civil War Afloat''
p. 35
U.S. Naval Institute Press, . * Tucker, Spencer C. (2010): ''The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia''
pp. 216–225
ABC-CLIO, . ;Periodicals * ''

'', ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Unadilla Class Gunboat Gunboat classes Riverine warfare