USS Adirondack ( 1862 ) The first USS " Adirondack " was a large and powerful screw - assisted sloop of war with heavy guns , contracted by the Union Navy early in the American Civil War . She was intended for use by the Union Navy as a warship in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways . Her career with the Navy proved to be short , yet active and historically important . USS " Adirondack " was one of four sister ships which included the , and . Construction and design . " Adirondack " was built at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn , New York . Her machinery , consisting of two cylinder , stroke horizontal back - acting steam engines and two Martin ' s patent boilers , powering a single screw propeller , was constructed by the Novelty Iron Works of New York City . The engines were fitted with a Sewall ' s tonface condenser and a distilling apparatus , capable of producing of water in a 24 - hour period . " Adirondack " was laid down in 1861 ; launched on 22 February 1862 ; sponsored by Ms . Mary Paulding , a daughter of Flag Officer Hiram Paulding , the Commandant of the New York Navy Yard ; named for the Adirondack Mountains , and commissioned on 30 June 1862 , Commander Guert Gansevoort in command . Civil War . Although " Adirondack " was originally slated for duty in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron , events in the Bahamas changed her fate . Before she sailed for the Gulf of Mexico , news reached Washington , D . C . that the British - built screw steamer " Oreto " — later known as the CSS " Florida " — had arrived at the island of New Providence and , although constructed under the pretext of being a merchantman destined for service under the Italian Government , was in reality a cruiser which was then being fitted out as a Confederate commerce raider . Thus , on 11 July , Secretary of the Navy ( SecNav ) Gideon Welles ordered Gansevoort to proceed in " Adirondack " to the West Indies to investigate the report . " Adirondack " sails for the Bahamas , captures " Emma " . The new Union screw - sloop of war departed New York City on 17 July and headed for the Bahamas . Six days out , she chanced upon a schooner and , after a two - hour chase , boarded the stranger which proved to be a Baltimore , Maryland - built vessel named which was operating out of Nassau , Bahamas , under a British colonial register . Since the schooner ' s master had only recently arrived in the West Indies in command of the blockade runner " Ann E . Barry " , and since " Emma " was laden with " . . . articles of great need in the so - called Confederate States , " Gansevoort sent her to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , under a prize crew . Two days later , on the morning of the 25th , when in sight of Nassau but still " . . . beyond the territorial jurisdiction of . . . the British Empire , " Gansevoort " . . . discovered shortly after daylight a steamer standing in for Nassau . " He again gave chase and fired upon the fleeing ship ; but , this time , his quarry ' s speed enabled her to reach the neutral port safely . British authorities protest chase of " Herald " . Some two hours later , a boat from the Royal Navy sloop of war pulled alongside " Adirondack " as she approached Nassau and delivered a letter to the American steamer protesting her role in the recent chase and informing Gansevoort that the elusive steamer was named " Herald " and had been " . . . struck two or three times with shot . . . " during the action . Shortly thereafter , " Adirondack " anchored in the roadstead off Nassau harbor , and Gansevoort sent " Greyhound " s commanding officer a written reply to the protest , justifying his course of action . He then went ashore where he learned that " Herald " — commanded by " . . . the notorious rebel Coxetter , formerly captain of the rebel privateer " Jeff . Davis " " — had returned from Charleston , South Carolina , laden with cotton after delivering a cargo of ammunition to that Confederate port . " Adirondack " reports on legal status of the raider . Since " Adirondack " had encountered extremely severe weather during her passage out from New York , she remained at Nassau for three days undergoing voyage repairs and replenishing her coal bunkers . Gansevoort took advantage of his ship ' s stay in port to learn of conditions there before sailing for the Virginia Capes on 28 July . Upon arriving at Hampton Roads , Virginia , on 4 August , he reported that " Oreto " was indeed a Confederate cruiser , but that she was then ” His dispatch to Washington also stated that sentiment in the Bahamas was strongly in favor of the South . Thus the outcome of the judicial action against the warship — which would later be freed and win fame as the Southern raider " Florida " — was in doubt . " Adirondack " sailed to Bahamas again to investigate further rumors . On 12 August , SecNav Welles ordered " Adirondack " to proceed to Port Royal , South Carolina , to report to Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron . The next day , a report reached Washington , D . C . , that another British built cruiser — which would later prey on Union shipping as CSS " Alabama " — had slipped out of England and was heading for Nassau . Anxiety over this new threat prompted Welles to send " Adirondack " back to the Bahamas to investigate . Nevertheless , before this message reached Hampton Roads , the steamer had sailed for Port Royal in compliance with her orders of the 12th . Word of her new mission finally caught up with her there on the 18th and she got underway for Nassau that afternoon . " Adirondack " strikes a reef in the Bahamas , and sinks . All went well until the morning of the 2rnd , when " Adirondack " struck a reef off the northeast point of Man - O - War Cay of the Little Bahama Bank group . The shock immediately disabled her engine , and daylong efforts by the ship ' s crew , with the aid of local wreckers , proved futile . That evening , with her back broken and her keel forced up through the engine room , the ship bilged . Fortunately , she suffered no personnel casualties .