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The ''Pawtuxet''-class cutters were a class of six screw steam revenue cutters built for the United States Revenue Cutter Service during the American Civil War. The cutters served mostly on patrol and convoy escort duty during the war. In the postwar period, some were used as transports for government officials in addition to their normal duties. Two of them played a role in the foiling of filibuster raids on Canada and Cuba in the late 1860s. In 1867, four of the cutters were disposed of after only some 2½ years of service, on the grounds that their engines were overly complicated. These four vessels—, , and —went into merchant service in Asia and either had short careers or disappeared from shipping registers. Of the remaining two cutters, went to the West Coast, where she conducted an important survey of the Alaskan coastline before being sold in 1873, when she became the merchant steamer ''Los Angeles''. ''Los Angeles'' was wrecked off Point Sur in 1894. ''Mahoning'', meanwhile, renamed , went on to a remarkable 51-year career with the Cutter Service, accumulating an outstanding record for aiding ships in distress from her homeports in Maine, and also serving in the Spanish–American War, before being sold in 1915. ==Development, design and construction== At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the United States Revenue Cutter Service was in a dilapidated state, with only one steamer in its entire fleet, and only 28 ships in total.〔King, p. 6.〕 The ''Pawtuxet'' class cutters were the first new steam-powered vessels to be ordered for the Service since the 1840s,〔("''Ashuelot'', 1863" ); ("''Kankakee'', 1863" ); ("''Kewanee'', 1863" ); ("''Mahoning'', 1863" ); ("''Pawtuxet'', 1863" ); ("''Wayanda'', 1863" ), U.S. Coast Guard website.〕 and as such, represented a major element in the Service's wartime rejuvenation. In common with the usual government practice during the war, construction contracts for the ''Pawtuxet''s were distributed through several states, with three of them built in New York, two in Baltimore, Maryland, and one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the New York-built ships, the engines for two of them, ''Ashuelot'' and ''Pawtuxet'', were supplied by the Novelty Iron Works,〔("The New Revenue Cutters—The Launch of Two of Them" ), ''The New York Times'', 1863-07-10.〕 while the engines for the third, ''Kankakee'', were supplied by J. & R. I. Grey's Phoenix Iron Works.〔 The engine builders for the other three ships are not known. The ''Pawtuxet'' contracts called for hulls of oak, locust and white oak, strengthened with diagonal iron bracing.〔 The ships were long, with a beam of and both draft〔 and hold depth of .〔〔("Naval News" ), ''The New York Times'', 1864-11-02.〕 Depending on the source, the vessels of the ''Pawtuxet'' class were each powered by either one double- or two single-cylinder oscillating engines; the distinction is probably semantic. The engine (or engines) operated a single 8-foot diameter screw propeller.〔 The only available machinery specifications are for the cutter ''Kankakee'', but specifications for the others were probably similar if not identical. The oscillating cylinders for ''Kankakee'' had a 36 inch bore, 30-inch stroke and 10-inch steam cut-off. Steam, at a pressure of about 22 psi, was supplied by a single tubular boiler. The engine drove a single 8-foot diameter, 12-foot pitch screw propeller geared upward at a ratio of 3:1, delivering a speed of about 12 knots.〔 Most if not all ships in the class were topsail schooner rigged for auxiliary sail power,〔 although ''Kankakee'' may have been brig rigged.〔 Armament for each of the ships consisted of one 30-pounder Parrott rifle and five 24-pound howitzers. In at least some of the ships, two of the guns were pivot mounted, one fore and one aft.〔〔 The vessels each had a complement of 41—seven officers and 34 enlisted.〔 The six ships of the class were launched between July and September 1863, and completed about a year later, entering service between July and November 1864.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pawtuxet-class cutter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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