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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 54699:  USS De Soto in the harbor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, 1868

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS De Soto (1861-1868).
Originally the civilian steamship De Soto (1859)

De Soto, a 1675-ton (burden) wooden side-wheel steamship, was built at Brooklyn, New York in 1859. She was purchased by the Navy in August 1861, converted to a warship, and commissioned later in the year. De Soto joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron in December and in January 1862 captured the first of more than twenty vessels that would be credited to her account during two and a half years of enforcing the Federal blockade of the Confederacy's Gulf of Mexico coast. The steamer was decommissioned for repairs in June 1864 and did not return to active service until August 1865, by which time the Navy had resumed peacetime operations.

Thereafter De Soto cruised along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf and West Indies region. She was damaged by an earthquake on 18 November 1867, but was repaired and saw further Caribbean service in 1868. Decommissioned in September 1868, USS De Soto was sold later in that month. She returned to commercial employment, but was destroyed by fire in December 1870.

This page features all the views we have related to USS De Soto (1861-1868) and the civilian steamship De Soto.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 63872

De Soto
(American Steamship, 1859)

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, 1947, painted for use in his book "Early American Steamers", Volume I.
This ship served as USS De Soto during 1861-1868.

Courtesy of Erik Heyl.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 395 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59366

"Merchant Steamers Converted into Gun-boats."


Engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861 volume.
It depicts thirteen merchant steamships acquired by the U.S. Navy between April and August 1861 and subsequently converted into warships, plus the steamer Nashville (far left), which became a Confederate cruiser.
U.S. Navy ships, as identified below the image bottom, are (from left to right: Alabama, Quaker City, Santiago de Cuba (listed as "St. Jago de Cuba", Mount Vernon, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Florida, De Soto, Augusta, James Adger, Monticello, Bienville and R.R. Cuyler.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 182KB; 1200 x 470 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 54699

USS De Soto
(1861-1868)

In the harbor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1868.
The original print is mounted on a carte de visite.

Courtesy of William F. Low, 1927.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 470 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 8 August 2002
Minor text correction made 17 September 2003