USS Guard, ex National Guard (sailing storeship, 1861)

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Class:        GUARD (ex NATIONAL GUARD)
Design:        Sail (ship)
Displacement (tons):        1,846; 1,049 (tonnage)
Dimensions (feet):        162.75' x 37.7' x 16.0' max
Original Armament:        4-32pdr (1861)
Later armaments:        1-30pdr Parrott rifle (1864); 1-30pdr Parrott rifle, 4-32pdr (1865); 1-30pdr Parrott rifle, 2-32pdr (1865)
Complement:        95
Speed (kts.):        --
Propulsion (HP):        N/A
Machinery:        Sail, ship rig

Construction:

AF	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
--	GUARD (ex NATIONAL GUARD)	6 Jul 61	George D. Morgan	--	1857	ca Aug 61

Disposition:

AF	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
--	GUARD (ex NATIONAL GUARD)	15 Dec 78	3 Mar 83	27 Sep 83	Sold	--

Class Notes:
The ship-rigged sailing vessel NATIONAL GUARD was built by George D. Morgan in Portland, Conn., in 1857. She was purchased on 6 July 1861 at New York from J. H. Bower & Co. for $35,000. On 13 August 1861 the commander of the Gulf Squadron was notified by the Secretary of the Navy that the NATIONAL GUARD, one of four coal vessels to be sent to him, had been loaded and armed with four guns and was about to leave New York. Following her arrival at Key West under the command of Acting Master James H. Hodgdon she served as a supply ship for the squadron. When the Gulf Blockading Squadron was divided in February 1862 NATIONAL GUARD was assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron under Flag Officer David G. Farragut.

Returning to New York, NATIONAL GUARD on October 27, 1862, was ordered converted into a store ship at the New York Navy Yard, and on 15 November 1862 she was ordered to be fitted out as a coal ship at the same yard. On 26 November 1862 Acting Master Hays was ordered, as soon as the ship was ready for sea, to proceed with her to Turtle Harbor, Fla., and remain there as a coal depot for the vessels of the West India Squadron until further orders. The ship was commissioned at New York on 23 Dec 62 (her surviving log books start on this date) and sailed for Turtle Harbor on the 27th. She remained attached to the West India Squadron until July 1864 and was based from May 1863 at Cap Haitien, Haiti. On 3 May 1864 she moved to Key West to remain during the summer and the hurricane months and to avoid exposure to disease, but an unusually early appearance of yellow fever infected her and on 14 July 1864 she sailed for Boston. She was quarantined there on 29 July and decommissioned on 10 November 1864.

NATIONAL GUARD recommissioned at Boston on 15 March 1865 and on 12 July 1865 she sailed for Cadiz, Spain, to act as store ship for the European Squadron. Her name was shortened to GUARD on 2 Jun 1866. She returned to New York on 12 October 1869 and was decommissioned there on 6 November 1869. GUARD was recommissioned on 17 January 1870 and joined the Darien Expedition for survey work in determining a route for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. With the screw gunboats NIPSIC and NYACK she explored five routes but all proved impracticable. She was decommissioned at New York and placed in ordinary on 3 August 1871. Recommissioned on 1 February 1873, she departed New York on 22 March 1873 carrying American exhibits for the Vienna Exposition, which she delivered at Trieste. She returned to New York on 14 April 1874 with the exhibit materials and some European goods intended for the American Centennial Exposition in 1876 and was decommissioned on 22 April 1874. Back in commission on 18 September 1877, she was assigned the mission of determining by means of the submarine cable the longitudes between Lisbon, Maderira, the Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, and Buenos Aires. Sailing from New York on 29 October 1877, she arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 1 June 1878 after tracing this route and then conducted astronomical surveys of the Brazilian Coast before arriving at Portsmouth, N.H., on 7 December 1878 and decommissioning there on 15 December 1878. She remained laid up in ordinary at Portsmouth, N.H., until she was sold there on 27 September 1883 to C. A. Williams & Co. of New London, Conn., for $5,050.

Ship Notes:

AF	Name	Notes
--	GUARD (ex NATIONAL GUARD)	Ex merc. NATIONAL GUARD. Renamed GUARD 2 Jun 66. Sold 27 Sep 83.