View source for USS Althea (1863)

{{short description|Tugboat of the United States Navy}}
{{other ships|USS Althea}}
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|Ship country=United States
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|Ship launched=1863
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|Ship acquired=9 December 1863
|Ship commissioned=circa 24 April 1864
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|Ship in service=7 November 1865
|Ship out of service=25 April 1866
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|Ship fate=Sold, 8 December 1866
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|Ship type=[[Tugboat]]
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|Ship displacement=72 tons
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'''USS ''Althea''''' was a screw [[Steamship|steamer]] acquired by the Union Navy during the [[American Civil War]]. The Union Navy used it as a [[tugboat]], a [[torpedo boat]], and a [[ship's tender]] in support of the Union Navy blockade of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] waterways.

==Service history==
''Alfred A. Wotkyns'' was a screw [[tugboat]] that Lewis Hoagland built in 1863 at [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]]. The [[Union Navy]] purchased it at New York City on 9 December 1863, and renamed it ''Althea''. Soon thereafter it was fitted out for naval service by Secor and Co., of [[Jersey City, New Jersey]]. Since the logs for its first period of service are missing—presumably lost when a torpedo (naval mine) sank it—there is no record of ''Althea''{{'}}s commissioning date. Still, on 24 April 1864 [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[Gideon Welles]] ordered the commandant of the [[New York Navy Yard]] to hurry the tug to Rear Admiral [[David Glasgow Farragut]] who then was trying to build up his [[West Gulf Blockading Squadron]] for an attack on [[Mobile, Alabama]].

About this time, however, Lieutenant General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] was preparing to launch a two-pronged campaign against [[Richmond, Virginia]]: driving south from the [[Rapidan River]] with the [[Army of the Potomac]] toward the Confederate capital and simultaneously ascending the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]], with a force under Major General [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin F. Butler]], for an amphibious landing at [[Bermuda Hundred, Virginia]], to begin a push through [[Petersburg, Virginia]].

The destructive foray of the Confederate ironclad ram {{ship|CSS|Albemarle}} from the [[Roanoke River]] into [[Albemarle Sound]], [[North Carolina]], on 17 April and her reappearance on 5 May—the day Grant's offensives began—increased Union anxiety over the possibility that the Confederate squadron at Richmond might descend the James, wrest control of that vital stream from the Union flotilla, and wreck Butler's transports and supply ships, stranding his troops in hostile territory where they would be at the mercy of Southern soldiers. To prevent such an eventuality, Welles sent several warships, formerly ordered to the [[Gulf of Mexico]], to [[Hampton Roads, Virginia]], to reinforce the [[James River Flotilla]].

''Althea'' was one of these ships. While the date of her departure from New York City is not known, the tug was said to be serving on the James in the dispatch dated 17 June 1864 which reported the locations of the ships of the [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]]. She had been fitted out with a [[spar torpedo]] to be used in attacking any Confederate ironclad which might appear and she was prepared to act as a ram should an opportunity for such employment arise. The tug also served as a tender to Union ironclads in the James.

===Gulf service===

Late in July, the situation in that river seemed stable enough to permit the Union warships borrowed from Farragut to move on to the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. Repaired and prepared for sea by the [[Norfolk Navy Yard]], ''Althea'' departed Hampton Roads in company with three other tugs on the 26th and reached [[Mobile Bay]] on 5 August, the day of Farragut's great victory there.

Too late to participate in the historic [[Battle of Mobile Bay]], ''Althea'' busied herself in ensuing months supporting Farragut's combatant ships as they joined Army forces in operations against the city of [[Mobile, Alabama]]. On 12 April, the day Mobile finally surrendered, ''Althea'' struck a torpedo (naval mine) in the [[Blakeley River]] and sank while returning from a run up that stream in which she had dragged primitive sweep gear in an effort to clear the channels of explosive devices. Two members of her crew were killed in the accident, and three others—including the tug's [[commanding officer]], Acting Ensign Frederick A. G. Bacon—were wounded.

Raised and repaired after the Confederate collapse, ''Althea'' was recommissioned at Mobile on 7 November 1865. She carried out towing chores and performed other varied services there, at [[Pensacola, Florida]], and at [[Key West]], Florida, until—towing the monitor {{USS|Sangamon|1862|6}} – she departed the latter port on 10 April 1866. After reaching the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]] on the 18th, she was decommissioned on 25 April 1866 and sold at auction on 8 December 1866.

===Commercial service===
Redocumented ''Martin Kalbfleisch'' on 10 January 1868, she served as a merchant tug until 1896.

==References==
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/althea-i.html}}
{{1865 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Althea}}
[[Category:Ships of the Union Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in New Jersey]]
[[Category:Steamships of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Tugs of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Tenders of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Torpedo boats of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States]]
[[Category:American Civil War auxiliary ships of the United States]]
[[Category:1863 ships]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by mines]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in rivers]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in March 1865]]