Built as a wooden hulled sloop on the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth in 1863 as the NIPSIC
She was broken up and rebuilt between 1873 and 1879 on the Washington Navy Yard in Washington DC for the USA Navy.
06 June 1878 relaunched as the USS NIPSIC, One of the Adams class.
Displacement 1,375 ton, dim. 54.71 x 9.1 x 3.51m. (draught)
Powered by one compound steam engine, 1,375 shp, speed 11 knots.
Armament 1 – 150 pdr, 1 – 30 pdr, 2 – 9 inch Dahlgren smootbores guns, 2 – 24 pdr. howitzers and 12 – 12 pdr guns.
11 October 1879 commissioned.
NIPSIC (1) was laid down 24 December 1862 by Portsmouth Navy Yard; launched 15 June 1863; sponsored by. Miss Rebecca Scott; and commissioned 2 September 1863, Lt. Comdr. George Bacon in command.
NIPSIC arrived off Morris Island, S.C., 5 November 1863 to join in the blockade of Charleston, where she served until the end of the Civil War. On 27 June 1864, she took schooner JULIA as the blockade-runner attempted to enter port. Such service contributed largely to Confederate defeat by closing the South's economy to all foreign contact.
Until 1873, when she was placed out of commission, NIPSIC served primarily with the South Atlantic Squadron off the coast of Brazil, and in the West Indies, protecting American commerce and interests.
1873 Decommissioned
(She was broken up and rebuilt, comparing tonnage and dimensions between the two ships, only the usable parts of the old ship were used otherwise they were building a complete new ship. She was one of the Kansas class, displacement 625 ton, 39.47 x 8.8 x 3.20m.(draught))
Recommissioned 11 October 1879, as the NIPSIC (2) after rebuilt on the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC., she served again in the West Indies until March 1880 when she sailed for the European Station.
After three years service in the Mediterranean and along the north and west coasts of Africa, NIPSIC returned to the South Atlantic Squadron in June 1883. She served there until March 1886 when she sailed to Washington for overhaul. In January 1888 she sailed for Cape Horn and Callao, Peru, whence she departed 23 September for duty as station ship in Apia Harbor, Samoa.
On 15 March 1889, NIPSIC rode at anchor in Apia Harbor with VANDALIA, TRENTON, HMS CALLIOPE and three German naval vessels, ADLER, OLGA and EBER, along with six merchantman. Gale-Force winds arose, and preparations for leaving harbor were begun, but departure was delayed in the hope that conditions next morning would be more favorable for the sortie. However, by early morning 16 March the harbor was a mass of foam and spray as hurricane-Force winds battered the ships. Only CALLIOPE, larger and more strongly powered than the others, was able to leave the harbor. VANDALA, TRENTON, the three German ships, and the merchantmen were all sunk; NIPSIC's captain, Comdr. D. W. Mullin, was able by superb seamanship to beach his ship. While severely damaged by the pounding she received on the beach, NIPSIC's hull was intact, although much of her topside structure was battered, all of her propeller blades damaged, two boilers spread and useless, and eight of her crew lost. Refloated and her engines repaired, NIPSIC cleared Apia 9 May for Auckland, but was turned back by heavy seas. On 15 May she again sailed, for Pago Pago, Fanning Island, and Honolulu, arriving 2 August.
NIPSIC was completely rebuilt in Hawaii, her length and beam extended and her tonnage increased. From 3 January 1890 she cruised in the Hawaiian Islands guarding American interests. She arrived in San Francisco Bay 30 September, and decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard 2 October. In 1892 she sailed to Puget Sound Navy Yard to serve as receiving ship and prison. On 13 February 1913 she was sold.
******************************************
Additional information on NIPSIC
Addition information taken from the site "The Patriot Files." This explains why the ships were on duty station in Samoa at the time of the Hurricane [that the] DANFS omitted.
USS NIPSIC, a 1375-ton Adams class gunboat, was built at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., the last significant ship to be constructed at that facility. Officially, she was the Civil War gunboat NIPSIC rebuilt, but she actually was a completely new ship, with a displacement more than half again that of the original. The new NIPSIC was commissioned in October 1879 and served for several months in the West Indies. In March 1880, she crossed the Atlantic to join the European Squadron. NIPSIC was transferred to the South Atlantic Squadron in Mid-1883 and remained on that station until March 1886.
Following overhaul, NIPSIC went to the Pacific by way of Cape Horn in early 1888. Later in the year she became the station ship at Apia, Samoa, providing U.S. Naval presence there during a tense period with Germany over that nation's attempts to establish a Samoan government of its choice. On 15-16 March 1889, she was in Apia Harbor during a violent hurricane that wrecked two German and two U.S. Navy warships. NIPSIC and the German corvette OLGA survived the storm, but both were driven ashore and seriously damaged. During the next two months, NIPSIC was repaired enough to allow her to depart for Honolulu, Hawaii, where she arrived in early August 1889.
During the rest of 1889, NIPSIC underwent repairs at Honolulu. She operated in Hawaiian waters until September 1890 and was decommissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in early October of that year. In 1892 she was taken to the Puget Sound Naval Station, at Bremerton, Washington, for use as a barracks and prison ship. With a large roof built over her hull amidships, she served in this stationary role for some two decades. USS NIPSIC was sold in February 1913. Her new civilian owners subsequently converted her to a barge.
Late 1915 burned for salvage.
Samoa 1970 7s sg342, scott?
http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09914.htm
