Tonawanda
Built by William Cramp and Son of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the two-masted wooden brigantine-rigged screw steamer originally named Tonawanda, was launched in 1863. The vessel was 191 feet long and 30 feet wide with a tonnage of 785 tons. The U.S. Navy bought Tonawanda shortly after it was launched and renamed the ship USS. Arkansas. It served in the Gulf of Mexico during the U.S. Civil War.
History
Cramp and Son completed Tonawanda, the U.S. Navy was in dire need of ships to support the naval blockade of southern U.S. ports. To fill that need, Tonawanda, renamed USS. Arkansas was sent to support the West Gulf Blockading Squadron as a supply ship. Arkansas delivered supplies, mail, and personnel to ships serving blockade duty off Confederate ports and inlets, primarily along the Louisiana and Texas coasts. The vessel could accommodate 88 passengers and crew. Arkansas had four 32-pounder smoothbore cannons and one 12-pounder rifle.
At the end of the U.S. Civil War, USS Arkansas returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On June 30, 1865 the vessel was officially decommissioned by the U.S. Navy to be returned to civilian service. At that time it reverted to its original name. On July 20, 1865 the vessel was sold at public auction and purchased by George Leach for $40,100. The vessel began operations with the Philadelphia & Southern Mail Steamship Co. of Philadelphia. In early 1866, the Tonawanda began steaming regularly between Boston, Massachusetts and Havana, Cuba. In March 1866, Tonawanda left Boston for Havana under the command of Captain John Berry with a load of fish and potatoes. On March 27, Tonawanda grounded on Elbow Reef and the crew spent the following two days trying to free the steamship. Ultimately, Captain Berry turned his vessel over to Lewis Pierce of the wrecking vessel Three Brothers. Assisted by several other wrecking crews, Captain Pierce and his crew salvaged Tonawanda's cargo and removed its machinery.
Archaeology
The shipwreck believed to be Tonawanda rests in a sandy area shoreward and adjacent to City of Washington on Key Largo's Elbow Reef. The remains of the vessel include the boiler structure, machinery pieces, steam pipes, boiler pipes, iron collars, valves and several bearing caps, possibly used to secure the propeller shaft. Approximately 51 feet of the steam engine's bedding platform, frame structure between coal bunker, and ready-use coal bunkers are the site's main features. Iron frames run across the platform, an iron box keelson, two sister keelsons with an iron stringer/beam beneath the sister keesons.
