USS Verbena

History
United States
Owner	R. S. Campbell (1864) United States Navy (1864–65)
Builder	Lawrence & Foulks (Brooklyn, NY)
Launched	1863
Christened	Ino
Acquired	7 June 1864
Commissioned	11 July 1864
Decommissioned	13 June 1865
Renamed	USS Verbena (1864) Game Cock (1865) Edward G. Burgess (1885)
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Homeport	Washington Navy Yard
Fate	Sold, 20 July 1865
General characteristics
Type	Tugboat
Tonnage	104
Length	74 ft (23 m)
Beam	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Draft	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion	Screw propeller
Speed	12 mph (19 km/h)
Armament	1 × 20-pdr Parrott rifle 1 × 12-pdr smoothbore

USS Verbena was a small 104-ton steamer purchased by the Union Navy towards the end of the American Civil War. Verbena, outfitted with a 20-pounder Parrott rifle by the Navy, was placed in service as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the Confederate States of America. However, most of her service was as a tugboat and as a ship’s tender.

Service history

Verbena was originally Ino, a small wooden screw tugboat of 81 register tons, built at Brooklyn, New York by Lawrence & Foulks in 1863. She was purchased by the Navy at New York City on 7 June 1864 and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 11 July 1864. On 19 July, the vessel was attached to the Potomac Flotilla for duty as a tugboat. Two days later, she deployed in the Potomac River off Point Lookout, Maryland.; and she served for most of the duration of the Civil War as a tender to the ironclad USS Roanoke. After the collapse of the Confederacy, Verbena received orders on 5 May 1865 to proceed to the Washington Navy Yard, where she was decommissioned on 13 June. Verbena was sold at public auction there to W. E. Gladwick on 20 July; redocumented as Game Cock on 9 September; renamed Edward G. Burgess on 7 July 1885; and dropped from the registry in 1900.

See also

• Union Blockade

References

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