USS Oneida (1861)

USS Oneida sinking off Yokohama, Japan, 24 January 1870
History
United States
Name	USS Oneida
Ordered	February 1861
Builder	New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York
Launched	20 November 1861
Commissioned	28 February 1862
Decommissioned	11 August 1865
Recommissioned	May 1867
Fate	Sunk in collision 24 January 1870
General characteristics
Type	Screw sloop-of-war
Displacement	1,488 long tons (1,512 t)
Length	201 ft 5 in (61.39 m)
Beam	33 ft 10 in (10.31 m)
Draft	8 ft 11 in (2.72 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	186 officers and enlisted
Armament	3 × 30-pounder guns 2 × 9 in (230 mm) guns 4 × 32-pounder guns 1 × 12-pounder gun

The second USS Oneida was a Mohican-class screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy. During the Civil War, she destroyed the CSS Governor Moore and served in blockade operations. She was attached to the Asiatic Squadron from 1867–1870. She sank in 1870 outside Yokohama, Japan after collision with the British steamer Bombay. A court of inquiry, headed by the local British consul, found the officers of Oneida were responsible for the collision, with Bombay's captain being blamed for not staying at the scene to render assistance – a decision that caused some controversy.^[1] A less exhaustive U.S. naval court of inquiry laid the blame entirely on the Bombay's actions.^[2] Japanese fishing boats saved 61 sailors but 125 men lost their lives. The American government made no attempt to raise the wreck and sold it to a Japanese wrecking company. The company recovered many bones from the wreck and interred them at their own expense. The Japanese erected a memorial tablet on the grounds of Ikegami Temple in Tokyo and held a Buddhist ceremony in the sailors' memory in May 1889.