USS Berberry (1864)

USS Berberry (1864)


Career (US)
Name: USS Berberry
Ordered: as Columbia
Laid down: 1864
Launched: 1864
Acquired: 13 August 1864
Commissioned: 12 September 1864
Decommissioned: 10 June 1865
Struck: 1865 (est.)
Fate: sold, 12 July 1865
General characteristics
Type: Tugboat
Displacement: 163 long tons (166 t)
Length: 99 ft (30 m)
Beam: 20 ft (6.1 m)
Draft: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine, screw
Speed: 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement: 35
Armament: 2 × heavy 12-pounder smoothbore guns, 2 × 24-pounder smoothbore guns

USS Berberry (1864) was a steam-powered tugboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

On 13 August 1864 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Navy purchased Columbia, a wooden-hulled screw steamer built there earlier that year. The Navy renamed her Berberry, and she was placed in commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 12 September 1864, Acting Ensign Milton Griffith in command.

Read more about USS Berberry (1864):  Assigned To The North Atlantic Blockade, Chasing After Blockade Runners in The Dark of Night, Attempting To Free Run-aground Aster, Berberry Gets Stuck, Niphon Comes To The Rescue of Berberry While Aster Burns, Continued North Carolina Operations, Post-war Decommissioning and Sale, See Also