Today's classic warship, USS Cherokee
Cherokee class gunboat
Displacement. 606 t.
Lenght. 194'6"
Beam. 25'2"
Draft. 11'6"
Speed. 13 k.
Complement. 92
Armament. 2 20-pdr. r., 4 24-pdr. sb.
USS Cherokee, an 606-ton (burden) screw steam gunboat, was built in 1859 at Renfrew, Scotland, for commercial employment. Under the name Thistle she successfully ran through the Federal blockade into Charleston, South Carolina, in late January 1863. She ran aground while attempting to leave port a month later. Salvaged, sold to another owner and renamed Cherokee, she again attempted to an outbound passage, but was captured by USS Canandaigua on 8 May. Prior to delivery to the Boston Prize Court in July, she was used in the search for the Confederate raider Tacony. She was subsequently purchased by the Navy, converted to a warship at Boston Navy Yard, and commissioned 21 April 1864, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant J. F. Nickels in command.
Cherokee sailed from Boston 11 May 1864, bound for duty off the coast of North Carolina with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In addition to contributing to Union victory by cutting the Confederacy off from overseas sources of supply, this squadron repeatedly bombarded coastal defenses, and cooperated with the Army in amphibious expeditions up the many bays, inlets, and rivers of the serrated coast. Cherokee 's operations included the capture of blockade runner Emma Henry 8 December 1864, and bombardments at Fort Fisher, N.C., in December and January 1865. On 30 January she was ordered close inshore at New Inlet to reconnoiter the Half Moon Battery, where she discovered a large party of Confederates approaching the fortifications recently secured by Union troops. Cherokee threw heavy fire ashore, which drove the Confederates away after three determined rushes at the Union lines.
In February 1865, Cherokee joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, and patrolled against blockade runners between Key West and Havana until the close of the war. She was decommissioned at Boston 23 June 1865, and sold there 1 August 1865.
In 1866 she returned to civilian trades. In 1868 the steamer was sold to the Chilean Government. She served Chile's Navy for a decade under the name Ancud and spent another decade as a merchant vessel. The former Cherokee was wrecked at Chiloe, Chile, on 25 August 1889.
