USS Fahkee
{{Short description|Former tugboat of the United States Navy}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= File:Fah-Kee (1862 steamship).jpg |Ship caption= The merchant steamship Fah-Kee, which served as {{nowrap|USS Fahkee}} during the Civil War }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1862}} |Ship name=Fah Kee or Fah-Kee |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=*1862-1863: Wetmore & Cryder
|Ship operator= |Ship registry=New York |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Edward F Williams, Greenport NY |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=24 November 1862 |Ship completed=February 1863 |Ship out of service= |Ship refit= |Ship fate=Sold |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1862}} |Ship name=USS Fahkee |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired=15 July 1863 |Ship commissioned=24 September 1863 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=28 June 1865 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=1865 (est.) |Ship homeport=Port Royal, South Carolina |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Sold, 10 August 1865 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} |Ship name=Pictou |Ship namesake=Pictou |Ship owner=Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Co |Ship operator= |Ship registry=Quebec |Ship route= |Ship refit= |Ship fate=Missing 1873, probably burnt |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Passenger-cargo and naval collier |Ship tonnage ={{GRT|745}}; from c1866 601GRT; from 1872 757GRT |Ship displacement={{convert|660|LT|t|abbr=on}} |Ship length={{convert|163|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|29|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft={{convert|13|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship power=300hp (later 100nhp) |Ship propulsion=*Steam engine
|Ship speed={{convert|12|kn|mph km/h|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship range= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=(naval) 73 |Ship armament=*2 × 24-pounder howitzers
|Ship notes= }} |
The passenger-cargo steamer Fah-Kee (or Fah Kee) was launched in 1862 at Greenpoint, Brooklyn and operated on the United States coast until purchased in July 1863 by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The Navy used USS Fahkee as a collier and freight supply ship assigned to assist Union Navy ships patrolling Confederate waterways.
At the end of the war she returned to mercantile service, as a mail ship to Cuba and Bermuda. In 1872 she was sold to Canadian owners, and renamed Pictou for service between that port and Quebec. In November 1873 she went missing and was believed lost by fire.
==Construction and commercial service==
Fah Kee or Fah-Kee, designed to carry both cargo and passengers was built of white oak in 1862 by the New York shipbuilder Edward F. Williams at his yard at Greenpoint, Brooklyn.{{cite book |title=American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping |date=1863 |publisher=E & G W Blunt |location=New York |pages=576–577 |url=https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l0237571863/#589 |access-date=5 April 2021}}{{cite book |title=American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping: Steamers |date=1867 |publisher=Blunt & Nichols |location=New York |page=12 |url=https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l0237571867/#719 |access-date=6 April 2021}}{{cite news |title=Shipbuilding |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/50361618 |access-date=5 April 2021 |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |issue=177 |date=28 July 1875 |volume=36 |page=2}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|DANFS has place of build as Williamsburg, but the Williams shipyard had moved from there to Greenpoint in 1850.{{cite journal |last1=Silka |first1=Henry |title=Shipbuilding and the Nascent Community of Greenpoint, New York, 1850-1855 |journal=The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord |date=2014 |volume=XVI |issue=2 |pages=18–19 |url=https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol16/tnm_16_2_15-52.pdf |access-date=5 April 2021 |publisher=Canadian Nautical Research Society |location=Ottawa, Canada |issn=1183-112X}}}} She measured {{GRT|745}}, with a length of {{convert|175|ft|m|abbr=on}}, beam of {{convert|30|ft|m|abbr=on}}, depth of hold {{convert|18|ft|m|abbr=on}} and draft of {{convert|14|ft|m|abbr=on}}. The ship was powered by a 300hp steam engine with a single vertical cylinder of 42 inches diameter and 42 inches stroke, made by Pusey and Jones of Wilmington, Delaware and driving a single propeller.{{cite web |last1=Colton |first1=Tim |title=Pusey & Jones, Wilmington DE |url=http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/pusey.htm |website=Shipbuilding History |access-date=5 April 2021}}{{cite news |title=Launch of the steamship Fah-Kee |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1862-11-25/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=5 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=9569 |date=25 November 1862 |page=1}} In addition, she carried sail, rigged as a brigantine.
The ship, intended for trading in the Far East, was launched on 24 November 1862 for Wetmore & Cryder of New York City, and named Fah Kee ("flowery flag" in Cantonese), a Chinese nickname for the USA.{{cite book |last1=Tiffany |first1=Osmond |title=The Canton Chinese |date=1849 |publisher=James Munroe & Company |location=Boston |page=231 |url=http://library.umac.mo/ebooks/b31046204.pdf |access-date=5 April 2021}}{{cite news |title=Miscellaneous News |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1863-02-18/ed-1/seq-4/ |access-date=5 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=9653 |date=18 February 1863 |page=4}} By then, however, she was already expected to be taken up for service with the United States Navy. Nevertheless, when Fah Kee was completed in February 1863, she was sold to the Adams Express Company and put into passenger-cargo service between the ports of New York, Beaufort, North Carolina and Port Royal, South Carolina.{{cite news |title=Important from Port Royal |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1863-03-09/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=5 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=9672 |date=9 March 1863 |page=1}} On 15 July the ship was purchased by the Union Navy.{{cite web |title=Fahkee |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/f/fahkee.html |website=DANFS |publisher=Naval History & Heritage Command |access-date=6 April 2021 |date=18 December 2014}}
Civil War service
=North Atlantic Blockade=
USS Fahkee was commissioned on 24 September 1863 with Acting Master F. R. Webb in command, and served the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron as a collier and freight supply ship from the time of her commissioning to the close of the war. She carried cargo from New York City, Norfolk, Virginia, and Newport News, Virginia to the fleet on the North Carolina coast, as well as providing towing services and patrolling on blockade at frequent intervals.
=Operation in Battle=
Fahkee first came under fire on 3 January 1864 in Lockwood's Folly Inlet near Wilmington, North Carolina, when she passed through musket and shell fire from the shore to investigate Bendigo, a blockade runner grounded and afire. Fahkee shelled the ship to further her destruction, which was completed the next day by other ships.
While blockading Wilmington, North Carolina, in the spring and summer of 1864, Fahkee was several times fired upon by Confederate shore batteries, and on 24 August, engaged a blockade runner. Returning to the same area after a voyage to New York and Hampton Roads, she twice fired on grounded blockade runners in December. In January 1865, she carried cargo from Norfolk to Beaufort and to the fleet operating against Fort Fisher.
=South Atlantic Squadron and disposal=
In April 1865, at the close of the war, Fahkee was assigned to the South Atlantic Squadron, and from Port Royal, South Carolina, provisioned ships at Charleston, South Carolina, and those cruising the coast of the Carolinas. She also cruised with the Squadron off Cuba before arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 19 June.
Fahkee was decommissioned on 28 June 1865, and sold in Philadelphia on 10 August.
Further commercial service
Reverting to Fah Kee, the ship was bought by Waydell & Co, New York for their US Mail contract, operating from November 1865 between Santiago de Cuba and New York, via Bermuda; she was remeasured at {{GRT|601}}.{{cite journal |last1=Gallagher |first1=Scott |title=Answers to problem covers in Issue 160 |journal=The Chronicle |date=February 1994 |volume=46, No.1 |issue=161 |pages=68–71 |url=http://chronicle.uspcs.org/pdf/FChronicle_161/F11442.pdf |access-date=6 April 2021 |publisher=US Philatelic Classics Society |location=Wheeling, IL}} On 1 August 1867, on a mail voyage from New York to Santiago via Nuevitas, she was severely damaged in a hurricane in 36.40N 73.50W - about {{convert|80|nmi}} east of Virginia Beach, Virginia - with the engine disabled and the ship leaking badly. After passengers and crew manned the pumps and the engine was eventually restarted, Fah Kee returned to New York on 5 August.{{cite news |title=Disaster to Steamer Fah Kee |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016025/1867-08-06/ed-1/seq-3/ |access-date=6 April 2021 |work=Portland Daily Press |volume=6 |date=6 August 1867 |location=Portland, Maine |page=3}} She continued in the Cuba and Bermuda trades until mid-1869, when she was sold to J Norman Harvey, was refurbished, and continued in the mail service with Bermuda.{{cite news |title=Shipping Notes |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1869-06-13/ed-1/seq-10/ |access-date=6 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=11985 |date=13 June 1869 |page=10}}{{cite news |title=For Bermuda |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1869-10-26/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=6 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=12120 |date=26 October 1869 |page=1}}
In March 1872, Fah Kee was sold to the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Company to run between Pictou, Nova Scotia and ports on the Saint Lawrence River, and was renamed Pictou.{{cite news |title=Shipping Notes|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-03-17/ed-1/seq-12/ |access-date=7 April 2021 |work=New York Herald |issue=12992 |date=17 March 1872 |page=12}}{{cite book |title=Register of American and Foreign Shipping |date=1873 |publisher= |location=New York |page=[622] |url=https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l0179721873/#622 |access-date=7 April 2021}} She was registered as a British ship at Quebec on 23 May 1872 with Official Number 66004 and under British regulations was measured as 757GRT and 544NRT, with a length of {{convert|166.0|ft|m|abbr=on}}, beam of {{convert|28.8|ft|m|abbr=on}} and depth of hold {{convert|18.2|ft|m|abbr=on}}; the engine was then rated at only 100 nominal horsepower.{{cite web |title=Appropriation Book |url=https://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/appropriation/66004 |publisher=Crew List Information Project |access-date=7 April 2021}}{{cite book |title=Mercantile Navy List |date=1874 |location=London |page=69}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The Mercantile Navy List mis-spelled the ship's name as "Picton".}}
Loss
In November 1873 Pictou sailed from Quebec City for Pictou with calls along the way. She was last seen passing Father's Point, near Rimouski, Quebec, and it was reported that there were heavy gales in the area shortly afterwards.{{cite news |title=Dominion of Canada |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/18731218/077/0002 |access-date=7 April 2021 |work=The Scotsman |issue=9485 |publisher=British Newspaper Archive (subscription) |date=18 December 1873 |page=2}} However, there were later reports of a fire at sea being observed from Fairfield, north-east Prince Edward Island, from the Magdalen Islands and from Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton Island on the night of 18 November. Wreckage also came ashore showing signs of burning.{{cite news |title=American Shipwrecks |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000285/18731229/057/0003 |access-date=7 April 2021 |work=Shields Gazette |volume=XXV|issue=6005 |publisher=British Newspaper Archive (subscription) |date=29 December 1873 |page=3}}{{cite news |title=Wreck |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002262/18740109/010/0003 |access-date=7 April 2021 |work=The Central Press |issue=3371 |publisher=British Newspaper Archive (subscription) |date=9 January 1874 |location=London |page=3}}
Notes
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References
{{Reflist}}
:{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/f/fahkee.html}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahkee}}
Category:Steamships of the United States
Category:Ships of the Union Navy
Category:Ships built in Brooklyn
Category:Steamships of the United States Navy
Category:Tugs of the United States Navy
Category:Colliers of the United States Navy
Category:American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States
Category:Maritime incidents in 1867