Verbena (Tug)
1864-1865
A large genus of herbs or subshrubs mostly native to the Americas.
(Tug: tonnage 104; length 74'0"; beam 17'6"; draft 8'0"; speed 12 miles per hour; armament 1 20-pounder Parrott rifle, 1 12-pounder smoothbore)
The wooden-hulled steamer Ino, built at Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1864, was purchased by the Navy at New York City on 7 June 1864. Renamed Verbena, she was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 11 July 1864.
On 19 July 1864, the vessel was attached to the Potomac Flotilla for duty as a tug. Two days later, she deployed in the Potomac River off Point Lookout, Md.; and she served for most of the duration of the Civil War as a tender to the ironclad Roanoke. After the collapse of the Confederacy, Verbena received orders on 5 May 1865 to proceed to the Washington [D.C.] Navy Yard, where she was decommissioned on 13 June.
Verbena was sold at public auction there to W. E. Gladwick on 20 July 1865, and was redocumented as Game Cock on 9 September. Renamed Edward G. Burgess on 7 July 1885, she was dropped from the mercantile registry in 1900.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
6 April 2022
