USS Dai Ching was a steam gunboat in commissioned into service in the United States Navy in 1863.

During the later stages of the Taiping Rebellion, Shanghai local authorities contracted Henry Gamaliel Ward, brother of American mercenary Frederick Townsend Ward who had died in combat fighting for the Qing Dynasty earlier, to purchase 5 steamers.

Henry Ward ordered the constructions of 3 steamers, one of them being Dai Ching (Chinese: 大清; pinyin: Dàqīng; lit.

Dai Ching joined an expedition up the St. Johns River in Florida, and she remained in that area from 6 February to 7 March 1864.

Later that same day, Dai Ching came under fire by a three-gun Confederate artillery battery while she was on the Combahee River headed for Tar Bluff.