USS Britannia

History
United States
Namesake	Britannia
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	1862
Acquired	September 29, 1863
Commissioned	September 16, 1863
Decommissioned	June 28, 1865
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Captured	by Union Navy forces June 25, 1863
Fate	Sold, August 10, 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	495 tons
Length	189 ft (58 m)
Beam	26 ft (7.9 m)
Draft	9 ft (2.7 m)
Depth of hold	11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion	steam engine side wheel-propelled
Speed	12.5 knots
Complement	75
Armament	one 30-pounder Parrott rifle twelve 12-pounder rifles two 24-pounder howitzers
Armour	iron hulled

USS Britannia was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat and patrol vessel in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

In 1862, Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, shipbuilders launched the iron-hulled, side-wheel paddle steamer Britannia.^[1] She was first registered to the Leith, Hull & Hamburg company of Leith, Scotland. In January 1863, she was acquired by Leach, Harrison & Forward of Liverpool to run through the Union Navy's blockade of the Confederate coast during the American Civil War.

After three successful voyages carrying munitions and supplies to the beleaguered South, Britannia departed Charleston, South Carolina, on June 21, 1863 and headed for Nassau, New Providence, with a cargo of cotton.