View source for USS Quaker City

{{short description|Gunboat of the United States Navy}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2018}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=[[File:USS Quaker City.jpg|300px|USS ''Quaker City'']]
|Ship caption=Wash drawing of USS ''Quaker City'' (1861–1865) by Clary Ray, circa 1900.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag=[[File:US Naval Jack 36 stars.svg|48px|Union Navy Jack]] {{USN flag|1861}}
|Ship name=USS ''Quaker City''
|Ship namesake=A former name retained.
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=
|Ship laid down= date unknown
|Ship launched=1854
|Ship acquired=25 April 1861
|Ship commissioned=14 December 1861 at [[New York City]]
|Ship decommissioned=18 May 1865 at the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]]
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck= 1865 (est.)
|Ship honors=
|Ship fate=Sold, 20 June 1865 at [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]
|Ship notes= Continued to serve American commerce until 1869
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship type=[[Steamship]]
|Ship displacement={{convert|1428|LT|t|abbr=on}} (burden)
|Ship length={{convert|244|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|36|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft={{convert|13|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship hold depth={{convert|29|ft|0.5|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship propulsion=[[Steam engine]], side wheel-propelled
|Ship sail plan= 
|Ship speed={{convert|13|kn|mph km/h|lk=in|abbr=on}}
|Ship range=
|Ship complement=163 officers and enlisted
|Ship armament=1 × 20-pounder [[Parrott rifle]], 8 × 32-pounder guns
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''USS ''Quaker City''''' was a heavy, {{convert|1428|LT|t|abbr=on}} sidewheel [[steamship]] leased by the [[Union Navy]] at the start of the [[American Civil War]]. She was subsequently purchased by the navy, outfitted with a powerful 20-pounder long rifle, and assigned to help enforce the [[Union blockade]] of the ports of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77v2AX6IxUoC&q=USS+Quaker+City+%281854%29&pg=PA51|title=Civil War Navies, 1855-1883|last=Silverstone|first=Paul|date=2006-11-06|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135865498|language=en}}</ref>

==Service history==
''Quaker City''—a sidewheel steamer built at [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] in 1854—was chartered by the navy for 30 days on 25 April 1861 from Hargous & Co., re-chartered for three months on 25 May; purchased on 12 August 1861, and commissioned at [[New York City]] on 14 December 1861, [[Commander (United States)|Commander]] James M. Frailey in command. Placed in service only six days after [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] declared a blockade of the Confederate coast, ''Quaker City'' was one of the most active and effective blockaders in the Union Navy. Stationed off the entrance to [[Chesapeake Bay]], she shared in the capture of ship ''North Carolina'' on 14 May, of [[Barque|bark]] ''Pioneer'' in [[Hampton Roads]] on the 25th, and of bark ''Winifred'' off [[Cape Henry]] the same day. She captured [[schooner]] ''Lynchburg'', carrying coffee in the Chesapeake Bay on 30 May and took bark ''General Green'' off Cape Henry on 4 June. Already a veteran, she shared in the capture of ''Amy Warwick'' in Hampton Roads on the 10th, took bark ''Sally Magee'' there on the 26th, and shared in taking schooner ''Sally Mears'' on 1 July. Schooner ''Fair Wind'' became her prize on 29 August, and the sidewheeler shared in the capture of steamer ''Elsie'' on 4 September. Three days later she sailed north for repairs and to receive a naval crew and organization.

[[File:USS Quaker City at Italy.jpg|thumb|left|Steamship ''Quaker City'' (in the middle distance) at Naples, Italy in 1867. She was USS ''Quaker City'' during the Civil War.]]

Commissioned at [[New York City]] on 14 December, ''Quaker City'' was detached from the [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] to cruise in search of [[CSS Sumter|CSS ''Sumter'']] and turned her attention to hunting Confederate raiders. She captured ''Model'' in the [[Gulf of Mexico]] on 30 June 1862 and ''Lilla'' carrying drugs off Hole-in-Wall, Virginia on 3 July. Four days later, she helped {{USS|Huntsville|1861|2}} take ''Adela'' off the [[Bahamas]], and on the 24th blockade runner ''Orion'' at Champeche Bank, south of [[Key West, Florida]]. ''Mercury'' struck to the sidewheeler off [[Charleston, South Carolina]] on 4 January 1863, and ''Quaker City'' shared in the capture of ''Princess Royal'' on the 29th. Two days later she helped fight [[CSS Chicora|CSS ''Chicora'']] and [[CSS Palmetto State|''Palmetto State'']] when the Confederate rams attacked the Union squadron in the morning fog off Charleston.

She suffered considerable damage from a shell which entered about seven feet above the water line and exploded in the engine room. This damage and the wear from her hard service took its toll forcing her north for overhaul. Departing Port Royal on 8 March, she took schooner ''Douro'' off [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], the following day, heading for [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]] with a cargo of [[cotton]], [[turpentine]], and [[tobacco]]. Back in action she picked up 40 bales of cotton at sea on 26 June 1864 and shared in the capture of steamer ''Elsie'' off Charleston on 5 September. She participated in the abortive attack on [[Fort Fisher]], [[North Carolina]], on [[Christmas Eve]]. Cruising in the [[Gulf of Mexico]], she took schooner ''R. H. Vermilyea'' on 12 March 1865, ''Telemico'' on the 16th and ''George Burkhart'' the next day. Steamer ''Cora'' surrendered to her near [[Brazos Island|Brazos Santiago]], [[Texas]], on the 24th. She chased [[CSS Webb|CSS ''Webb'']] as the Confederate steamer attempted to run down the [[Mississippi River]] and escape to sea on 24 April.

After the war, ''Quaker City'' was decommissioned at the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]] on 18 May and sold at auction there on 20 June. Redocumented on 11 August, ''Quaker City'' then served American commerce under U.S. registry. In 1867, she was chartered to carry a group of American travelers on a "package tour" of [[France]], [[Italy]], [[Greece]], [[Turkey]], the "[[Holy Land]]", and [[Egypt]], departing 8 June from [[New York City]]. [[Mark Twain]] was a member of the tour group, sponsored by the newspaper ''[[The Daily Alta  California]]'', and his humorous letters about the trip became his best-selling book ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=20077368 |title=Mark Twain and the 'Quaker City' |first=Louis J. |last=Budd |editor-first=Dewey| editor-last=Ganzel |date=8 June 1968 |journal=The Southern Literary Journal |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=112–116}}</ref> The steamer was sold and renamed ''Columbia'' in 1869; later that year she was acquired by the [[Haiti]]an Navy and renamed ''Mont Organisé''. Sold again in February 1871, she was renamed ''République'', but was lost at sea off [[Bermuda]] later in that month. She was on a voyage from "Le Marc" to New York.<ref name=Times280271>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Latest Shipping Intelligence |date=28 February 1871 |page=10 |issue=26998 |column=E}}</ref>

==References==
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
{{Reflist}}
:{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/q/quaker-city.html}}

==External links==
*[https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-57000/NH-57840.html USS ''Quaker City'' (1861-1865)]

{{coord unknown|Atlantic Ocean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaker City}}
[[Category:Ships of the Union Navy]]
[[Category:Steamships of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Gunboats of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States]]
[[Category:Ships built in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:1854 ships]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]