An item reported the arrival at Willemstad, Curacao in the afternoon of Thursday the 8th of the American steamship USS Keystone State (1) commanded by G.H. Scott after visiting St. Thomas and Barbados and now destined for the coast of New Granada. According to rumours was she to find the CSS Sumter which recently visited Trinidad to load coal.
Notes
1. Wood-built sidewheel paddle steam gunboat built at the shipyard of J.W. Lynn, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1853, chartered by the Union navy from the Ocean Steam navigation Co., Philadelphia on 19 April 1861, acquired 10 June, commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy yard 19 July, de commissioned 26 March 1865, sold on a public auction at Washington, D.C. to M.O. Roberts and afterwards renamed San Francisco on 15 September and served until 1879. With a displacement of 1.364 long tons/1.386 tons were her dimensions 67 x 11 x 4,42 x 6,65 (depth of hold) metres or 220’x 35’x 14’6”x 21’10”. Speed 9,5 knots, a crew numbering 163 men and armed with 4-12pd guns (2 light, 2 heavy).
2. Screw steamship rigged like a bark which was originally built at the merchant steamship Haban for account of McConnell’s New Orleans at Philadelphia in 1859, purchased by the Confederate States at New Orleans in April 1861, commissioned as a commerce raider 3 June, after capturing several prizes (18) entered she Cadiz to undergo repairs on 4 January 1862, forced to go to Gibraltar, laid up in April, disarmed and sold on an auction on 19 December, renamed Gibraltar or Gibraltar of London sunk in 1867. Displacement 473 tons and as dimensions 56 x 9,1 x 3,7 metres or 184’x 30’x 12’. Speed 10 knots. She was slightly armed with 1-8” shell gun and 4-32pd guns and a small crew of 18 men.
