USS New London was a screw steamer of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Originally built in 1859 for commercial service between New York and Connecticut, the vessel was acquired by the Navy in 1861 and converted into a gunboat, serving throughout the war on blockade duty in the Gulf of Mexico.
After the war, the ship was decommissioned and sold, re-entering commercial service under the name Acushnet. She continued in merchant service until 1910.
Construction and design
New London, a wooden-hulled screw steamer, was built in Mystic, Connecticut, in 1859 by George Greenman & Company for the New London Propeller Company, which intended to put the vessel in commercial service between New York City and New London, Connecticut.
The ship was built of white oak and chestnut with copper and iron fastenings. She was in length, with a beam of and draft of .
Not content just to capture ships, New London, with and USS Henry Lewis, rounded out her record on the last day of 1861 by sending a landing party ashore to capture Biloxi, Mississippi, destroying a Confederate battery and taking possession of two guns and the schooner Captain Spedden. On 20 February 1862 a boat expedition from New London landed on Cat Island, Mississippi and interned 12 small sloops and schooners suspected of being pilot boats for blockade runners. On 4 April, with and , New London engaged CSS Carondelet, CSS Pamlico, and CSS Oregon while Henry Lewis landed 1,200 Union Army troops at Pass Christian, Mississippi and destroyed a Confederate camp there. Boats from New London captured the yachts Comet and Algerine near New Basin Canal, Louisiana on 2 June. On 17 June she captured and destroyed batteries at North and South passes.
During the ensuing years New London served on blockade duty in the Gulf of Mexico, operating primarily off the Texas coast. She and captured the British schooner Tampico off Sabine Pass, Texas, attempting to run out laden with cotton on 3 April 1863. On the 10th, while reconnoitering near Sabine City, a boat crew from New London captured a small sloop. Among the prisoners was Capt. Charles Fowler, CSN, who had commanded CSS Josiah A. Bell when the Confederate warship took and in January. On 18 April, another boat expedition was surprised and driven off by Confederate troops. On 7 July, with , New London engaged batteries below Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Three days later, while steaming to New Orleans, the ship engaged Confederate batteries at White Hall Point, Mississippi. Back off the Texas coast, she captured the schooner Raton del Nilo on 3 December.