USS Albemarle (1863)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Laid down | date unknown |
| Launched | date unknown |
| Acquired | 9 May 1863 |
| In service | circa February 1863 |
| Out of service | circa July 1865 |
| Stricken | 1865 (est.) |
| Captured |
|
| Fate | Sold, 19 October 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 200 tons |
| Length | 85 ft (26 m) |
| Beam | 25 ft 6 in (7.77 m) |
| Depth of hold | 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) |
| Propulsion | schooner sail |
| Speed | varied |
| Complement | not known |
| Armament | not known |
USS Albemarle was a screw steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a ship's tender in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
On the morning of 26 March 1862, sidewheel gunboat Delaware—during an expedition to the Pungo River in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, in search of Confederate shipping reported to be there—entered Pantego Creek and found two large schooners at its head . . . "which," he reported, "proved to be the Albemarle and Lion owned by Boyle and Richard Reddick, of Suffolk, Virginia."
Two armed boats from the Union warship took possession of the Southern vessels, towed them down stream, and anchored them at the mouth of the creek. Early the next morning, Delaware received on board several families who professed loyalty to the Union and asked for protection. Later that day, the gunboat and its prizes then proceeded to New Bern, North Carolina.
Assigned as a store ship for Union Navy blockade ships
Little information of the prizes' movements during ensuing months seems to have survived, but Albemarle apparently remained in the North Carolina sounds. In any case, she and a schooner named Knockern were reported on 3 February 1863 to be off New Bern serving as storeships for Union forces in the sounds. On 4 May 1863, a report from Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles stated that Albemarle was still there performing in the same capacity.
