< Otsego II SwStr

Otsego II SwStr

 

Otsego II
(SwStr: t. 974; 1. 205'0", b. 35'0", dph. 11'6", dr. 9'0", s. 14 k.; cpl. 145; a. 2 100 pdr. P.r., 2 20-pdr. P.r., 4 9" D.sb., 2 24-pdrs.)

The second Otsego, a wooden, double-ended, side-wheel gunboat, was launched 31 March 1863 by Jaeob A. & D. D. Westervelt, New York, N.Y., and apparently commissioned in the spring of 1864, Comdr. J. P. Bankhead in commar ..

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 2 May 1864, Otsego reached Hampton Roads on the 24th, and got underway on 12 June for New Berne, N.C. and served in the North Carolina Sounds where she served throughout her career, helping tighten the Union grip on these strategic waters and adjoining territory, primarily guarding the mouth of the Roanoke River aKainst an attack by Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle. When Lt. Cushing returned from his bold raid which destroyed the dreaded Southern ram on the night of 27-28 October, Otsego, in a group of Union ships under Comdr. Maeomb ascended the Roanoke and attacked Plymouth, N.C. forcing it to surrender after a bitter fight, 1 November. The Federal forces took 37 prisoners, 22 cannon vast stores, 200 stands of arms, and the hulk of sunken but still important A1bemarle. For more than a month thereafter Otsego performed reconnaissance and mop up work up the Roam~ke. On 9 December she struck two torpedoes in quick succession and sank in that river near Jamesville, N.C..