USS Saffron

John T. Jenkins, a wooden-hulled screw tug built in 1863 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, was purchased by the Union Navy on 8 December 1864 at Perth Amboy, New Jersey; renamed Saffron; and commissioned within the following week.

The tug was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and served at Hampton Roads, Virginia, by 15 December 1864. Saffron operated there and up the James River supporting Union Army forces during the final months of General Ulysses S. Grant's Richmond, Virginia, campaign.

On 3 April 1865, soon after Union forces learned that General Robert E. Lee had evacuated Richmond, Saffron joined a group of other Union ships in clearing obstructions and torpedoes from the channel leading to the fallen city. Their rapid and efficient work enabled President Abraham Lincoln to proceed safely up stream the next day to the newly captured Confederate capital. There, throngs of rejoicing former slaves greeted the President as he walked to the Confederate executive mansion.

After clearing the river to Richmond, Saffron helped to tow a captured Confederate ram, Texas, down stream. The tug then continued to operate in the James River, clearing torpedoes and obstructions from that important waterway, until late in May.

Her squadron's report of 1 June tells that Saffron either had recently sailed or was about to sail north.

No record of her decommissioning has been found, but the ship was certainly sold at New York City to D. Townsend on 25 October 1865. The tug was redocumented as Clifton on 17 February 1866 and remained in merchant service until she was lost under unknown circumstances in 1885.

  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.