USS Blue Light

USS Blue Light was a steam tug built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as an ordnance tugboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

USS Blue Light serving with the Fish Commission as USFC Blue Light, ca. 1873-75
History
United States
Name	USS Blue Light
Laid down	1863
Launched	February 27, 1864
Commissioned	circa March 1864
Decommissioned	circa April 1865
In service	June 27, 1873
Out of service	September 30, 1875
Stricken	1883 (est.)
Homeport	Boston Navy Yard Washington Navy Yard New London, Connecticut
Fate	Sold, September 27, 1883
General characteristics
Type	Tugboat
Displacement	103 long tons (105 t)
Length	Unknown
Beam	Unknown
Draft	Unknown
Propulsion	Steam engine screw-propelled
Speed	Unknown
Complement	Unknown
Armament	1 × gun

Blue Light configured to carry ammunition to Union Navy ships

Blue Light—a screw tug laid down in 1863 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine—was launched on February 27, 1864, and fitted out to carry ammunition from magazines ashore to warships anchored far out in harbors where they would not endanger people and property on the waterfront.

Assigned to the Boston Navy Yard throughout the war

The little steamer was assigned to the Boston Navy Yard and operated at that base through the end of the Civil War, supplying ammunition to Union warships preparing for operations along the Confederate coast or on the South's inland waters.

Post-Civil War operations

Following the collapse of the Confederacy, Blue Light continued to perform duty as an ordnance tug at Boston, Massachusetts, until 1870. From 1871 to June 1873, she served as a yard tug at the Washington Navy Yard.

Since no logs recording the vessel's operations before this time apparently up to this point are extant, Blue Light served the Navy in a non-commissioned status. The tug was placed in commission at Washington, D.C., on June 27, 1873, and, the following day, sailed for the coast of Maine to perform special service under the United States Commissioner on Fish and Fisheries. At the end of this assignment, she arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on September 6, and she was decommissioned there on the 13th.

Final operations, decommissioning, and sale

Recommissioned on June 12, 1874, the ship proceeded to New London, Connecticut, for a tour of duty as a yard tug which lasted until Blue Light was decommissioned again on September 30, 1875, and laid up into 1879. No records of her status for the following four years seem to have survived, but we do know that the tug was sold at Great Neck, New York, on September 27, 1883.

References

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.