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.