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USS Shubrick (1865)
Encyclopedia
USLHT Shubrick was the first lighthouse tender
Lighthouse tender
A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses, or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail and transportation....
steamer constructed by the Lighthouse Board.
The ship was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard of "Florida live oak and white oak," left over from the construction of the warship . She was "...topped by a flush deck fore and aft... To better withstand buoys scraping her sides, Shubricks hull was painted black, topped with a white ribbon and waist. Red paddle wheels, white paddle boxes, and a black bowsprit, yards and gaffs added a saucy touch to her long and graceful cutwater, with six inches of bright copper shining above the waterline."
Lighthouse Board, 1857–1861
Completed on 25 November 1857, she was placed under the command of Captain T. A. Harris, and set sail for San Francisco, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, through the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...
on 23 December 1857, arriving on 27 May 1858 after a voyage of 155 days. Shubrick spent the next three years setting buoys and carrying lighthouse supplies along the Pacific coast.
Revenue Cutter Service, 1861–1866
On 23 August 1861, on the outbreak of the Civil War, she was transferred to the Revenue Cutter ServiceUnited States Revenue Cutter Service
The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 as an armed maritime law enforcement service. Throughout its entire existence the Revenue Cutter Service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury...
. Commissioned on 15 October 1861 under the command of Revenue Captain William Cooke Pease, she served under Revenue Cutter Service orders for almost four years, performing customs and law enforcement duties, based first out of San Francisco, and then at Port Townsend
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
from June 1862.
Port Townsend incident
In the early part of August 1862, Victor Smith, collector of customs, arrived to take possession of the customhouse at Port Townsend. The Pacific coast had been was alarmed by the advances of the Confederates in New Mexico and Arizona, their secret negotiations to secure the cooperation of the governments of Sonora and Chihuahua and the belief that their secret organizations were thought to be ready to attempt the seizure of the West coast. For these reasons Lieutenant James H. Merryman, acting collector, fearing this was such an attempt declined to turn over the property unless presented with his papers of authorization. The customs collector declined to furnish them but went to the Shubrick, selected an armed guard, returned and demanded the customhouse be given up in fifteen minutes or it would be taken by force.Lieutenant Merryman instead turned over the customhouse and papers to Lieutenant Wilson of the Shubrick, who gave him a receipt for the papers and placed them on board. A threatening attitude was assumed by the cutter, her guns were trained upon the port. On August 11, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Lieutenant Wilson and Victor Smith, but when the United States Marshal boarded the Shubrick on her return trip, Lieutenant Wilson refused to obey the warrant and sailed away. A month later the issue was resolved when both Smith and Wilson agreed to undergo an investigation.
Conspiracy to seize the Shubrick
On March 15, 1863, a schoonerSchooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
, called the J. M. Chapman
J. M. Chapman (privateer)
J. M. Chapman, 90 Ton schooner, was purchased by in 1863, by Asbury Harpending and other California members of the Knights of the Golden Circle in San Francisco to outfit as a Confederate privateer....
, had been seized in the harbor of San Francisco, just as she was preparing to put to sea as a Confederate privateer
Confederate privateer
The Confederate privateers were privately owned ships that were authorized by the government of the Confederate States of America to attack the shipping of the United States...
. This seizure made the Union men everywhere along the coast more alert for other attempts to get a vessel for this purpose. Among its papers was one letter disclosing plans for the capture of the USS Shubrick but the scheme appeared to have been abandoned. However early in 1863, Allen Francis, United States consul at Victoria, received information that led him to believe a plot was forming, to seize the Shubrick, and convert her into a Confederate privateer.
Captain Pease, the Shubricks commander and the Shubrick made occasional visits to Victoria. In a Victoria newspaper had printed a report of a plot to attempt to seize the Shubrick. It was this which caused Consul Francis to have two private investigators to observe his movements very closely, and he learned enough to justify the conclusion that Shubrick was to be seized, with the captain's consent, while on the British side of the straits, and provided with a new crew which would willingly go on a privateering enterprise. The consul communicated this to Secretary William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
who was unsatisfied with the British denials that such a thing was going to happen.
Word was sent to the Customs Collector for Puget Sound to discharge Pease and most of the crew, all suspected Southern sympathizers. This was accomplished by Lieutenant Selden, second in command on the Shubrick, known to be loyal. On the next visit of the Shubrick to Victoria, while the captain and a large part of the crew were on shore, Selden threw off her mooring lines, and with only six men on board, he sailed away for Port Townsend. Captain Pease made no effort to rejoin his ship, but sailed from Victoria to San Francisco and then Panama, seeming to confirm the information that Consul Francis had received.
Remaining service of USS Shubrick
On 15 February 1865, Shubrick was transferred to the Navy Department for 90 days for special service in the Bering StraitBering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
supporting survey operations conducted by a Colonel Charles S. Buckley, the agent of the Russian Telegraph Company. She then returned to San Francisco, and the Revenue Cutter Service, who in turn handed her back to the Lighthouse Board on 24 December 1866.
Lighthouse Board, 1867–1886
On 8 September 1867, while transporting building materials to the Cape Mendocino LightCape Mendocino Light
Cape Mendocino Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, off Shelter Cove near Point Delgado, California. The tower had the highest focal plane at in the U.S....
house, Shubrick ran aground 30 miles south of the site. Considered a total loss, she was abandoned, but her chief engineer, Thomas Winship, was able to save her. Shubrick was rebuilt at the San Francisco Navy Yard at a cost of $162,399.12 and was placed back in service in 1869. She transferred to the 13th Lighthouse District in January 1880, and remained active for five more years, before being taken out of service in December 1885, and decommissioned the following month.
She was sold at Astoria, Oregon
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...
in March 1886. Her new owner ran her aground and stripped her of usable material, and then burnt her hull to recover all of her copper and metal fittings.