 CSS Jamestown moving in to capture merchant schooners in Hampton Roads, April 11, 1862. (Line engraving originally published in Harper's Weekly in 1862.)
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States | |
| Name | Jamestown |
| Namesake | Jamestown, Virginia |
| Launched | 1853 |
| Commissioned | July 1861 |
| Decommissioned | May 15, 1862 |
| Fate | Sunk to obstruct James River |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 1300 tons |
| Length | 250 ft (76 m) |
| Beam | 34 ft (10 m) |
| Draft | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine |
| Armament | 2 guns |
CSS Jamestown, originally a side-wheel, passenger steamer, was built at New York City in 1853, and seized at Richmond, Virginia in 1861 for the Virginia Navy during the early days of the American Civil War. She was commissioned by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) the following July (after the Virginia Navy was transferred to the CSN),[1] and renamed CSS Thomas Jefferson but was generally referred to as Jamestown, after Jamestown, Virginia.
Brigantine-rigged Jamestown was designed and constructed by the well-known shipbuilder William H. Webb for the New York and Old Dominion Line as a sister to Yorktown, which became CSS Patrick Henry.
- ^ Historical Information Library of Virginia. Retrieved 27 December 2016