Home, a screw steamer, was built as Key West in 1862 at Brooklyn, New York. She was purchased by the Navy at New York 14 August 1863, commissioned 21 August 1863, Acting Master W. H. Garfield commanding, and name changed to Home.
Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Home sailed after commissioning for Charleston towing monitor Lehigh. Home was assigned by Rear Admiral Dahlgren as a rest ship, to which the exhausted crews of the steaming monitors could retire after the fierce bombardments of early September. She remained off Charleston with periodic trips to Port Royal for repairs until July 1864, when she was assigned to act as a hospital ship inside the bar at Charleston. She continued her combination blockader-hospital ship service until mid-1865, when she took up lightship duties in the harbor. During this period Home also sent members of her crew ashore on boat expeditions in the Charleston area, notably 5 March 1865 when an important reconnaissance of Charleston harbor obstructions was effected.
Home returned to New York in August 1865 and decommissioned 24 August 1865. Redocumented Key West, she returned to merchant service; she was stranded and lost off Cape Hatteras 12 October 1870.
