Siren I (StwGbt)
Minor divinities in Greek mythology who lure sailors to destruction by their singing.
Siren (q.v.), a brig built for the Navy at Philadelphia in 1803, has frequently been misspelled Siren.
I
The first Siren, a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamer built as White Rose in 1862 at Parkersburg, Va., was purchased by the Navy on 11 March 1864 at Cincinnati, Ohio; and was placed in service as a temporary receiving ship at Mound City, Ill. Subsequently fitted out as a "tinclad" gunboat, the ship was commissioned on 30 August 1864 for service on the Mississippi River between Columbus, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn.
However, before she could proceed downstream to her station, she was ordered, on 23 September, to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to guard that area against a reportedly imminent attack by Confederate troops under Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby. When the alarm proved groundless, she steamed downstream to her station as a ship of the Fourth District of the Mississippi Squadron. Into February 1865, she served on the river protecting Union shipping and preventing Confederate traffic across the river.
On 14 February, Siren was ordered to proceed to New Orleans for temporary duty with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron during mop-up operations in Mobile Bay. However, upon her inspection at New Orleans, it was decided that she would require such "extensive repairs, alterations, and adjustments" before she would be ready for service at sea, that she was promptly returned to the Mississippi Squadron. She served on the rivers through the end of the Civil War. Among her varied duties during the first months after the Confederacy collapsed, was the task of accepting the surrender of Southern troops and of disarming the region.
She was decommissioned at Mound City on 12 August 1865 and sold at public auction there on 17 August 1865 to G. E. Warner, E. S. Mills, et al. Redocumented as White Rose on 3 October 1865, the ship served in river commerce until abandoned in 1867.
