&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:USS_Idaho_1422.jpg) Watercolor on silk, depicting Idaho under full sail following her conversion to a storeship.
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| History | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Naval_jack_of_the_United_States_(1865%E2%80%931867).svg){kind=small}  United States | |
| Name | USS Idaho |
| Namesake | Idaho |
| Builder | George Steers of New York City |
| Launched | 8 October 1864 |
| Acquired | 1866 |
| Commissioned | 2 April 1866 |
| Recommissioned | 3 October 1867 |
| Decommissioned | 31 December 1873 |
| Fate | sold, in 1874 to the East Indies Trading Company |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steam sloop |
| Displacement | 3,241 t (3,190 long tons) |
| Length | 298 ft (91 m) |
| Beam | 44 ft 6 in (13.56 m) |
| Draft | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Propulsion | steam engine, with twin screws |
| Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Armament | 8 t guns |
USS Idaho, a 3,241-ton steam sloop, was part of an American Civil War program of large, very fast, steam cruisers. Completed in May 1866, she ran her sea trials the following August, making just over eight knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). Her boilers and engines, ordered as a result of political influence, failed totally to achieve her 15-knot (28 km/h; 17 mph) contract speed. The U.S. Congress, however, stepped in and ordered its purchase. The ship was then modified with sail and became one of the fastest ships in the U.S. Navy.