 USRC Levi Woodbury, the longest-serving ship of the Pawtuxet class
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pawtuxet-class cutter |
| Builders |
|
| Operators | |
| Cost | $103,000 each |
| In service | 1864–1932? |
| In commission | 1864–1915 |
| Completed | 6 |
| Active | None |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 350 tons |
| Length | 130 ft (40 m) |
| Beam | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) |
| Draft | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) (aft) |
| Depth of hold | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion | 1 × two-cylinder oscillating steam engine; single 8 ft (2.4 m) screw |
| Sail plan | Topsail schooner |
| Speed | About 12 knots |
| Complement | USRM: 7 × officers, 34 enlisted |
| Armament | |
The Pawtuxet-class cutters were a class of six screw steam revenue cutters built for the United States Revenue Cutter Service during the American Civil War.
The cutters served mostly on patrol and convoy escort duty during the war. In the postwar period, some were used as transports for government officials in addition to their normal duties. Two of them played a role in the foiling of filibuster raids on Canada and Cuba in the late 1860s.
In 1867, four of the cutters were disposed of after only some 2½ years of service, on the grounds that their engines were overcomplicated. These four vessels—Ashuelot, Pawtuxet, Kankakee and Kewanee—went into merchant service in Asia and either had short careers or disappeared from shipping registers.
Of the remaining two cutters, Wayanda went to the West Coast, where she conducted an important survey of the Alaskan coastline before being sold in 1873, when she became the merchant steamer Los Angeles. Los Angeles was wrecked off Point Sur in 1894. Mahoning, meanwhile, renamed Levi Woodbury, went on to a remarkable 51-year career with the Cutter Service, accumulating an outstanding record for aiding ships in distress from her homeports in Maine, and also serving in the Spanish–American War, before being sold in 1915.