USS Althea (1863)

USS Althea (1863) was a screw steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat, a torpedo boat, and as a ship's tender in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

A New Jersey tugboat, commissioned in 1863
Alfred A. Wotkyns – a screw tug built in 1863 at New Brunswick, New Jersey, by Lewis Hoagland—was purchased at New York City by the Navy on 9 December 1863; renamed Althea soon thereafter; and fitted out for naval service by Secor and Co., of Jersey City, New Jersey.

Planned for service with the West Gulf Blockade
Since the logs for her first period of service are missing—presumably lost when she was sunk by a torpedo (Naval mine)-- we have no record of Althea's commissioning date; but, on 24 April 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered the commandant of the New York Navy Yard to hurry the tug to Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut who then was trying to build up his West Gulf Blockading Squadron for an attack on Mobile, Alabama.

Reinforcing the Union Fleet on the James
About this time, however, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was preparing to launch a two-pronged campaign against Richmond, Virginia: driving south from the Rapidan River with the Army of the Potomac toward the Confederate capital and simultaneously ascending the James River, with a force under Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, for an amphibious landing at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, to begin a push through Petersburg, Virginia.

The destructive foray of the Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle from the Roanoke River into Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, on 17 April and her reappearance on 5 May—the day Grant's offensives began—increased Union anxiety over the possibility that the Confederate squadron at Richmond might descend the James, wrest control of that vital stream from the Union flotilla, and wreck Butler's transports and supply ships, stranding his troops in hostile territory where they would be at the mercy of Southern soldiers. To prevent such an eventuality, Welles sent several warships, formerly ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to reinforce the James River Flotilla.

Althea, fitted with a torpedo, sent to the James
Althea was one of these ships. While the date of her departure from New York City is not known, the tug was said to be serving on the James in the dispatch dated 17 June 1864 which reported the locations of the ships of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She had been fitted out with a spar torpedo to be used in attacking any Confederate ironclad which might appear and she was prepared to act as a ram should an opportunity for such employment arise. The tug also served as a tender to Union ironclads in the James.

Althea reassigned to the Gulf of Mexico coast
Late in July, the situation in that river seemed stable enough to permit the Union warships borrowed from Farragut to move on to the Gulf of Mexico. Repaired and prepared for sea by the Norfolk Navy Yard, Althea departed Hampton Roads in company with three other tugs on the 26th and reached Mobile Bay on 5 August, the day of Farragut's great victory there.

Althea strikes a mine and sinks
Too late to participate in the historic Battle of Mobile Bay, Althea busied herself in ensuing months supporting Farragut's combatant ships as they joined Army forces in operations against the city of Mobile, Alabama. On 12 April, the day Mobile finally surrendered, Althea struck a torpedo (Naval mine) in the Blake River and sank while returning from a run up that stream in which she had dragged primitive sweep gear in an effort to clear the channels of explosive devices. Two members of her crew were killed in the accident, and three others—including the tug's commanding officer, Acting Ensign Frederick A. G. Bacon—were wounded.

Althea is raised and recommissioned
Raised and repaired after the Confederate collapse, Althea was recommissioned at Mobile on 7 November 1865, Acting Ensign William F. Kilgore in command. She carried out towing chores and performed other varied services there, at Pensacola, Florida, and at Key West, Florida, until—towing the monitor Sangamon – she departed the latter port on 10 April 1866.

End-of-war decommissioning, sale and subsequent career
After reaching the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the 18th, she was decommissioned on 25 April 1866 and sold at auction on 8 December 1866. Redocumented Martin Kalbfleisch on 10 January 1868, she served as a merchant tug until 1896.