USS Keystone State was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

At 10 pm the schooner Adrian, carrying coal for Fall River, Massachusetts, ran into Keystone State and sank in 15 minutes.

Her steam pumps barely kept up with the incoming water, and her captain was able to run the ship up onto the mud flats near Norfolk, Virginia, to keep her from sinking.

While the colliding ships were briefly locked together, the 1st and 3rd mates and three sailors of Cavalier leapt aboard Keystone State.

[18] At approximately 2 am on 18 August 1857 Keystone State hit and sank the barge A. Groves, jr. which was under tow by the tug Artisan in the Delaware River.

The owner of the barge sued the Philadelphia and Savannah Steam Navigation Company claiming that Keystone State should have maneuvered to avoid the collision.

The case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court which found in favor of Keystone State, and reaffirmed maritime rules of the road that remain in place today.

[19] On 7 September 1857 the ship was bound for Savannah, 75 miles south of Cape Henlopen, when the side lever on her steam engine broke.

She suffered another engine failure due to a broken side lever in June 1860 and was out of service for about a month while repairs were made in Philadelphia.

Acting on orders from Commodore Hiram Paulding, the commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Captain Samuel F. DuPont, chartered Keystone State for naval service on 19 April 1861.

At 6 pm that evening DuPont began loading her with more than 50 Marines, 50 sailors, ammunition, seven days of coal, and two weeks of provisions.

USS Minnesota, part of the blockading force based on Fortress Monroe, fired two shots at her and then sent a prize crew aboard to take possession.

The steamer Salvor was sailing from Havana to Tampa with a cargo that included 600 pistols and 500,000 percussion caps when she was captured by Keystone State near the Dry Tortugas on 14 October 1861.

[42] She visited Bermuda still searching for Sumter,[43] and arrived back at Fortress Monroe on 26 December 1861 with nothing to show for her cruise but two cases of smallpox.

[47] In March 1862, Keystone State was part of Flag Officer DuPont's fleet which captured Fernandina and the surrounding islands, putting an end to the need to blockade the port.

Schooner Dixie, bound for Nassau with a cargo of 100 bales of cotton, 234 barrels of turpentine, 40 bushels of peanuts, and 3,000 pounds of rice, was captured on 15 April 1862.

USS Housatanic engaged the ironclads, which retired to Charleston,[56] but Keystone State was on fire, leaking badly, and had two feet of water in the hold.

Keystone State participated in the capture of six ships during her final year of blockade duty including the steamer Margaret and Jessie[62] in 1863, and Caledonia,[63] Rouen,[64] Lilian,[65] Elsie,[66] and Siren[67] in 1864.

Keystone State was lucky in prize money:[68] In addition to participating in the capture of sixteen ships listed above, Keystone State also plucked from the sea almost 300 bales of cotton thrown overboard by blockade runners seeking to destroy valuables that would fall into the hands of their captors.

[4] At 7:30 am on 24 December 1864 Rolando signalled the reserve division to get underway, and by 8:00 am the ships were steaming westward towards Fort Fisher in line of battle.

At 2:52 pm Keystone State began firing over and between the ships in the first echelon, to support Army troops as they landed and fought to take the fort.

However, late in the afternoon, the Union Army commander, General Benjamin Franklin Butler, decided that the Confederate works could not be taken and ordered his troops to reembark.

Admiral Porter requested use of the monitor Montauk for the final assault on Wilmington, and Keystone State was assigned to tow the ship up the Cape Fear River on 21 January 1865.

[45] Porter's success in closing the last major Confederate port meant that blockaders such as Keystone State no longer had a role to play.

He sent Keystone State to the Morgan Iron Works in New York to be converted into a civilian merchant vessel suitable for this trade.

Beginning in July 1868, Webb chartered San Francisco to the New York and Mexican Mail Steamship Line owned by Francois Alexandre.

She was so important to the island that the Colonial Secretary ordered a special flag to be flown from government telegraph stations from the moment the ship was first sighted inbound to Hamilton.

Thus, British government officials sailed the Atlantic to New York, and then completed their trip to Bermuda aboard San Francisco.

In May, 1871, the ship received a 17-gun salute from the Royal Artillery at Fort Albert upon arrival in Hamilton with Major General John Henry Lefroy, the new governor, aboard.

[88] Webb's renewal application in November 1871 stated that the 240 pound sterling per round-trip subsidy was not enough to cover his losses operating San Francisco on the route, and he expected that the government would work to improve the profitability.