USS Mingo

USS Mingo may refer to:

USS Mingo (1862)

The first USS Mingo, a stern-wheel steamer built at California, Pennsylvania, in 1859 and used to tow coal barges, was purchased at Pittsburgh by Lt. Col. Charles Ellet for the War Department early in April 1862.

Ellet Ram Fleet

She was fitted out as a ram at Pittsburgh and headed down the Ohio River 29 April to join a fleet of rams which Ellet was organizing to counter the Confederate River Defense Fleet. This group of southern rams had been fitted out in the lower Mississippi and threatened to emulate the dreaded southern ironclad ram Virginia in routing wooden hulled Union ships. On 10 May the Confederate flotilla made a spirited attack on Union gunboats and mortar schooners at Plum Point Bend, Tennessee, sinking Cincinnati and forcing the Mound City aground. A fortnight later all but one of the rams had joined the Union flotilla above Fort Pillow ready for action. As the ram fleet and Western Flotilla prepared to attack, General Halleck's capture of Corinth, Mississippi, on 30 May cut the railway lines which supported the Confederate positions at Forts Pillow and Randolph, forcing the South to abandon these river strongholds.

USS Mingo (SS-261)

USS Mingo (SS-261) — a Gato-class submarine — was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the mingo snapper, a fish of the Caribbean with rough leathery skin. A Civil War ship had also been named Mingo, after an Iroquois term of reproach.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 30 November 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. Henry L. Pence), and commissioned on 12 February 1943, Lieutenant Commander Ralph C. "Red" Lynch, Jr., (Class of 1929) in command.

After shakedown off Long Island, Mingo sailed for Newport, RI on 1 April 1943 for three weeks of operations with the Naval Torpedo Station. She cleared New London on 16 May for the Pacific via the Panama Canal Zone.

First and second war patrols

After further training at Pearl Harbor, Mingo departed on her maiden war patrol on 25 June 1943. She made damaging attacks on three Japanese merchant ships and bombarded Sorol Island off the Palaus before returning to Pearl Harbor for refit.