Laburnum ScTug

Laburnum

(ScTug: t. 181; 1.110'; b. 22'; dr. 9'; s. 10 k.; cpl. 29; a.
2 20-pdr P.r., 2-24 pdr. hows.)

Lion, a screw tug built at Philadelphia in 1864, was purchased by the Navy 24 June 1864, renamed Laburnum, and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 7 July 1864, Acting Master A. A. Owens in command.

The new tug joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Port Roval, S.C., 17 July 1864. For the remainder of the Civil War she operated in the vicinity of Charleston on blockade duty and assisting other ships of the squadron towing and acting as dispatch vessel. Such modest but vital service by ships contributed greatly to the effectiveness of the blockade which ultimately strangled the Confederacy nnd restored peace to the divided nation.

On 15 February Laburnum captured a boat with seven men from blockade runner Spiph which had run aground on Sullivan's Island while attempting to escape from Charleston and the tentacles of Sherman's army. Four days later, after the South had evacuated Charleston Laburnum began removing obstructions between Mount Pleasant and Fort Sumter and she continued to labor restoring order to the waters of South Carolina until after the end of the war.

Laburnum decommissioned 24 January 1866 and was sold at auction in New York to L. J. Belloni 16 March 1866. The tug was redocumented as D. P. Ingraham 14 May 1866 and served commercial shipping until sold to a foreign purchaser in 1878.