USS Cornubia
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | USS Cornubia |
| Builder | Harvey & Co. |
| Cost | £18,000 (£2,288,148 in 2023) |
| Laid down | November 1856 |
| Launched | February 1858 |
| Commissioned | 17 March 1864 |
| Decommissioned | 9 August 1865 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Stricken | 1865 (est.) |
| Captured | by Union Navy forces, 8 November 1863 |
| Fate | Sold, 25 October 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Paddle steamer |
| Displacement | 589 long tons (598 t) |
| Length | 210 ft (64 m) |
| Beam | 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Depth of hold | 13 ft 3 in (4.04 m) |
| Installed power | 230 hp (170 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h) |
| Complement | 76 |
| Armament | 1 × 20-pounder rifle, 2 × 24-pounder smoothbore guns |
The SS Cornubia was laid down in November 1856 and built in Hayle, Cornwall, by Harvey & Co. She was launched in February 1858 as a packet ship and ferry for the Hayle and Bristol Steam Packet Company. Sleek and painted white, with two funnels mounted close together amidships and with a high bridge over her paddle wheels, she plied the Hayle/St Ives to Bristol route in the days when the Great Western Railway had not penetrated as far as West Cornwall.