USS Hornet (1865)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Hornet.

USS Hornet
History
United States
Laid down	1864
Launched	1864
Christened	Lady Stirling
Completed	1864
Acquired	28 October 1864
Decommissioned	15 December 1865
Renamed	USS Hornet, 25 April 1865
Captured	1864
Fate	Sold, 1869
General characteristics
Type	Sidewheel steamer, blockade runner
Displacement	835 tons
Length	242 ft (74 m)
Beam	26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
Draft	13 ft 3 in (4.04 m)

USS Hornet was the fifth United States Navy ship to bear the name Hornet. She was originally CSS Lady Stirling, a blockade runner built by James Ash at Cubitt Town, London in 1864 for the Confederate States Navy. She was badly damaged and captured by the United States Navy on 28 October 1864 off Wilmington, North Carolina.

History

Following condemnation by a prize court, Lady Sterling was bought by the U.S. Navy, repaired, armed, and commissioned as USS Lady Sterling and later renamed USS Hornet on 25 April 1865. In navy service she mainly operated in the Chesapeake Bay squadron. In October 1865, Hornet escorted the Confederate ironclad CSS Stonewall from Cuba to the United States.

Hornet was decommissioned on 15 December 1865 and sold into private ownership in 1869. After the war Hornet was involved in several filibustering expeditions to Cuba under the names Hornet and Cuba, including an unsuccessful mission in January 1871 to deliver weapons and ammunition to Cuban rebels during the Ten Years' War.

See also

• Blockade runners of the American Civil War
• Ships captured in the American Civil War

Bibliography

• Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, Josephus; Marsh, Captain, U.S.Navy, retired, C.C. (1921). Official records of the Union and Confederate navies in the War of the Rebellion.
  Government Printing Office, United States. Naval War Records Office, United States.
  Office of Naval Records and Library. p. 276.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Url
• "Cuban Affairs: The Seizure of the Cargo of the Hornet etc" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 January 1871. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.