USS Gettysburg (1858)

USS Gettysburg during Mediterranean service in the 1870s
History
Isle of Man
Name	Douglas
Namesake	Douglas, Isle of Man
Owner	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
Operator	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
Route	Douglas–Liverpool
Builder	Robert Napier and Sons, Glasgow, Scotland
Cost	£17,500, plus an allowance of £5,000 from Napier for SS King Orry
Launched	28 May 1858
Completed	1858
In service	3 July 1858
Out of service	November 1862
Identification	Official Number 20683 Code Letters H C F T
Fate	Sold 1862
Confederate States of America
Name	Douglas (1862–1863) Margaret and Jessie (1863)
Namesake	Douglas was a previous name retained Margaret and Jessie were the Confederate owner′s daughters
Owner	Charleston Import and Export Company, Charleston, South Carolina
Acquired	November 1862
In service	2 December 1862
Fate	Captured 5 November 1863
United States
Name	USS Gettysburg
Namesake	Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of the Battle of Gettysburg
Operator	United States Navy
Acquired	by capture 5 November 1863
Commissioned	2 May 1864
Decommissioned	23 June 1865
Recommissioned	3 December 1866
Decommissioned	1 March 1867
Recommissioned	3 March 1868
Decommissioned	8 October 1869
Recommissioned	6 November 1873
Decommissioned	9 April 1875
Recommissioned	21 September 1875
Decommissioned	26 June 1876
Recommissioned	30 September 1876
Decommissioned	6 May 1879
Fate	Sold 8 May 1879
General characteristics (as steam packet)
Type	Sidewheel steam packet
Tonnage	700 gross register tons (GRT)
Length	205 ft 0 in (62.5 m)
Beam	26 ft 0 in (7.9 m)
Depth	14 ft 0 in (4.3 m)
Installed power	Nominal horse power believed to be 260 shp (190 kW).
Propulsion	Side-lever steam engine, two sidewheel paddles
Speed	17.75 kn (20.43 mph; 32.87 km/h) (trials) 17.25 knots (32 km/h) (service )
Capacity	800 to 900 passengers
General characteristics (as U.S. Navy vessel)
Type	Sidewheel gunboat
Displacement	950 long tons (965 t)
Length	221 ft (67.4 m)
Beam	26 ft 3 in (8.00 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion	Side-lever steam engine, two sidewheel paddles
Speed	15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Complement	96 officers and men
Armament	1 × 30-pounder Parrott rifle 2 × 12-pounder rifles 4 × 24-pounder howitzers

The first USS Gettysburg was a steamer in the United States Navy. The ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1858, named RMS Douglas, and operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in the United Kingdom between Liverpool, England, and Douglas on the Isle of Man until November 1862. She was then sold to Cunard, Wilson & Company on behalf of the Confederate agents Fraser, Trenholm & Company for use by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Renamed Margaret and Jessie, she operated as a blockade runner until her capture by the Union on 5 November 1863. The ship then was commissioned into the Union Navy on 2 May 1864 as USS Gettysburg.

During her U.S. Navy service, Gettysburg operated with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, was involved in both the first and second attacks on Fort Fisher, helped lay telegraph cables between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, and undertook navigational surveys of the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. Gettysburg was decommissioned on 6 May 1879 and sold two days later.