Historical Society of PA Holiday Gift

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Image: Old Log Cabin on the Wissahickon Creek, Fairmount Park, East Side, watercolor by David Johnson Kennedy



 

Receiving Ship Princeton

The image is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  '

The Princeton was moved to Philadelphia to serve as a receiving ship through the Civil War. The big buildings in the background were in the U.S. Navy Yard, at that time at Washington Avenue. A receiving ship was where new naval recruits reported for duty, as recorded in "A Journal of a Cruise in the U.S.S Powhatan" by Charles S. Mervine, age 15. Repeat, age 15.

"August 1862. At sea.

"8th. I shipped in the U.S. Navy at Philadelphia (for three yrs.) The same day find myself on board the Receiving Ship "Princeton" where [I] remained going through the ups and downs of a sailor's life until the night of the 9th when I was drafted on board the 'Powhatan.' We lay in the Delaware [with] many visitors coming aboard until the 25th."