Wayanda, 1863
Derived from a Native American word for “The Place of Happy Hearts.”
Builder: Messrs. Fardy & Brother, Baltimore, Maryland
Length: 138'
Beam: 26' 6"
Draft: 11'
Displacement: 350-tons
Cost: $103,000
Commissioned: 1 September 1863
Decommissioned: 18 October 1873
Disposition: Sold
Machinery: 2 oscillating cylinders; 8' screw
Performance & Endurance:
Max:
Cruising:
Complement: 41
Armament: ?
Cutter History:
Wayanda was one of six Pawtuxet-class steam cutters built for the Revenue Cutter Service. This was the first class of steam cutters built for the RCS since the ill-fated 1840s' steam cutters. The contracts called for hulls of oak, locust, and white oak, with iron diagonal bracing. All but Mahoning had very short service lives due to their overly complicated machinery and their too-deep draft.
Wayanda, sometimes referred to as the Wawayanda, was accepted for the Service from the contractor on 12 May 1863. She was first ordered to New York, her arrival being reported on 3 June of the same year. She was ordered to Savannah, Georgia, on 1 February 1865. As noted in The Record of Movements, and reported on 14 June 1865, she was "At New Orleans - having landed at the place, Chief Justice Chase and party. The above order to Savannah was for the purpose of having the WAYANDA form part of the convoy of the 'cotton fleet' from that place to New York. The order was obeyed. The order to New Orleans was a subsequent one of which there is no record."
She was then transferred to San Francisco, California on 11 June 1866. It was reported on 21 December 1866 that she arrived at San Francisco safely. On 20 March 1868 she received "the officers and crew of the LINCOLN" and was ordered to Alaskan waters. Her arrival in Sitka, Alaska, was reported on 8 September 1868. Her return to San Francisco was reported on 9 November 1868. She apparently made another trip to Alaska in 1869-1870, as per Records: "Dates between which she was absent from home ports on cruising to Alaska as shown by her Journal. April 28 to November 5, 1868. December 12, 1869 to February 6, 1870."
Canney notes that sometime in the late 1860s she was subject to a "major rebuilding"; with some 30 feet being added to her hull length. She was decommissioned on 18 October 1873 and sold soon thereafter. She was listed as the steamer Los Angeles as of 1887.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).