USS Canandaigua (1862)

USS Canandaigua (1862) was a sloop-of-war which displaced 1395 LT, with steam engine screw, acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War. After the war, Canandaigua was retained and placed in operation in Europe and elsewhere.

With her heavy guns (three of them rifled) and speed of 10 kn, she was an ideal and successful gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

Canandaigua — a screw sloop — was launched on 28 March 1862 by Boston Navy Yard, and commissioned on 1 August 1862, with Commander J. F. Green in command.

Union service
Canandaigua reported to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina on 26 August 1862, adding to the Union capability to isolate the Confederacy from overseas supplies. Off Charleston on 15 May 1863, Canandaigua took the sloop Secesh; later she destroyed another blockade runner, and aided in the capture of a schooner and a steamer in the same area. In addition to blockading, Canandaigua cooperated with Union Army forces taking part in the long series of attacks on positions in Charleston harbor in 1863-1864.

On 17 February 1864, she rescued 150 members of the crew of USS Housatonic (1861) when she fell victim to the historic attack of the Confederate submarine CSS H. L. Hunley.

Post-war service
Canandaigua sailed for the Boston Navy Yard on 26 March 1865, and was decommissioned there on 8 April. Recommissioned on 22 November, Canandaigua cruised on the European Station until February 1869, when she began three years of repairs at New York Navy Yard. She was renamed Detroit on 15 May 1869, but returned to her original name on 10 August.

Her last cruise — 1872-1875 — was in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico with the North Atlantic Station's detachment there. Out of commission at Norfolk Navy Yard after 8 November 1875, she remained in ordinary until broken up in 1884.