The USS Minnetonka was one of eight wooden steam frigates authorized by the US Navy during the American Civil War to provide a postwar general purpose fleet.
She was launched on 3 July 1867 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine; and sponsored by Miss Margaret Bailey. Renamed USS California on 15 May 1869, she first went to sea on 7 October 1870, and served briefly in the Pacific. However, because she had been constructed of partially seasoned timber due to an unprecedented volume of shipbuilding during the war, her hull deteriorated rapidly and she was sold at Mare Island Navy Yard in May 1875.
References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
|
