CSS Jamestown

CSS Jamestown, originally a side-wheel, passenger steamer, was built at New York City in 1853, and seized at Richmond, Virginia in 1861 for the Virginia Navy during the early days of the American Civil War. She was commissioned by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) the following July (after the Virginia Navy was transferred to the CSN), and renamed CSS Thomas Jefferson but was generally referred to as Jamestown, after Jamestown, Virginia.

CSS Jamestown moving in to capture merchant schooners in Hampton Roads, April 11, 1862. (Line engraving originally published in Harper's Weekly in 1862.)
History
Confederate States
NameJamestown
NamesakeJamestown, Virginia
Launched1853
CommissionedJuly 1861
DecommissionedMay 15, 1862
FateSunk to obstruct James River
General characteristics
Displacement1300 tons
Length250 ft (76 m)
Beam34 ft (10 m)
Draft17 ft (5.2 m)
PropulsionSteam engine
Armament2 guns

Brigantine-rigged Jamestown was designed and constructed by the well-known shipbuilder William H. Webb for the New York and Old Dominion Line as a sister to Yorktown, which became CSS Patrick Henry.

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