A Navy Explorer

Union Navy commander Joseph Pitty Couthouy died April 4^th 1864 from a wound he received the day before.

Joseph Pitty Couthouy was born January 6^th 1808 in Boston, Massachusetts.  He attended the Boston Latin School beginning in 1820.  He applied for and received a position on the 1838 United States Navy’s Scientific Corps Exploring Expedition.  He was sent home in November 1840 from Honolulu for disobedience by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.  Couthouy returned to Washington, DC and the profession of a merchant marine.  In 1854 he was in command of an expedition to the Bay of Cuman’a, where he spent the next three years looking for the lost Spanish treasure ship the San Pedro.

When the Civil War started Couthouy took command of the USS Columbia in December 1862.  That ship was wrecked and Couthouy became a prisoner.  He would also command the USS Osage and lastly the USS Chillicothe as a part of the Red River Campaign.  While maneuvering off Grand Ecore, Louisiana on April 3^rd 1864, his ship was ambushed and shot.  Couthouy died the next day.

An Active Blockading Ship

Lieutenant Joseph Couthouy

The USS Kingfisher was purchased by the Union Navy August 2^nd 1861 and placed under the command of Acting Lieutenant Joseph P Couthouy.

The first ship known as the USS Kingfisher was bought by the Union Navy August 2^nd 1861.  She was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard October 3^rd 1861 and placed under the command of Acting Lieutenant Joseph P Couthouy.  She was sent immediately to Key West, Florida to be part of the Gulf Blocking Squadron.

The Kingfisher along with the USS Ethan Allen worked in cooperation on several missions in early 1862, including the capture of a ship bound to Nassau, Bahamas with a cargo of turpentine and taking the Confederate sloop the Mary Nevis.  The Kingfisher sent a landing party in at ST Joseph, Florida to destroy the salt works located there.  In December 1862 she was ordered after a refitting in Boston, Massachusetts to be part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.  The Kingfisher would run aground March 28^th 1864 at Combahee Bank in ST Helena Sound, South Carolina.  She filled with water and was abandoned there on April 5^th 1864.