&sq=&lang=&file=File:USS_Gettysburg_1.jpg) 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 |
|
| Fate | Sold 1862 |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Flag_of_the_Confederate_States_(1861%E2%80%931863).svg){kind=small} Confederate States of America | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| 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 | |
| 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 |
|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:ICS_Hotel.svg){kind=small}
&sq=&lang=&file=File:ICS_Charlie.svg){kind=small}
&sq=&lang=&file=File:ICS_Foxtrot.svg){kind=small}
&sq=&lang=&file=File:ICS_Tango.svg){kind=small}
&sq=&lang=&file=File:SS_Douglas_(I).JPG)
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.