Nipsic Class Gunboat (1863)

Five Nipsic class gunboats built for the U.S. Navy during the Civil War survived into the 1880s, although only one remained in service for any length of time afterwards.

Overview of five vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Yantic	Philadelphia NYd	Late 1862	19 Mar, 1864	12 Aug, 1864	Foundered 22 Oct, 1929
Saco	Boston NYd	Late 1862	28 Aug, 1863	11 Jul, 1864	Sold 20 Nov, 1883
Nyack	New York NYd	Late 1862	6 Oct, 1863	28 Sep, 1864	Sold 30 Nov, 1883
Template:US-1Shawmut	Portsmouth NYd	2 Feb, 1863	17 Jun, 1863	1 Nov, 1864	Sold 27 Sep, 1883
Kansas	Philadelphia NYd	Mid-1863	29 Sep, 1863	21 Dec, 1863	Sold 27 Sep, 1883

Design & Construction

Designed with the experience of the 90-day gunboats of the Unadilla class in mind. John Lenthall designed the hull with an eye towards achieving an increase in speed over the Unadillas, something judged necessary for blockade operations. Kansas's engines were English-built, taken from the captured blockade runner Princess Royal.

Performance

They proved well-built and durable in service, with Yantic surviving as a training ship into the 1920s.

Armament

As Designed

• one 10-inch Parrott muzzle-loading rifle
• two howitzers

As Completed

• Varied. See individual articles.

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Bauer, K. Jack and Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. New York: Greenwood Press.
• Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). The U.S. Navy Warship Series: Civil War Navies, 1855-1883. New York: Routledge.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). The U.S. Navy Warship Series: The New Navy 1883-1922. New York: Routledge.