Massachusetts
(ScGbt: t. 70; 1. 178'; b. 32'2"; dr. 15'; a. 4 guns)

The first Massachusetts, a wooden steamer, was built in the shipyard of Samuel Hall, Boston, Mass., under the supervision of Edward H. Lielano for Mr. R. B. Forbes in 1845 as an auxiliary steam packet, she helped pioneer commercial steamer service between New York and Liverpool, England. She was purchased by the War Department in 1847 and during the Mexican War served as a troop transport for the Army. In 1848 she steamed 'round Cape Horn to San Francisco; she was transferred to the Navy at Mare Island Navy Yard 1 August 1849, and commissioned the same day, Lt. L. R. Knox in command.

Assigned to the Pacific Squadron, Massachusetts operated along the west coast in a project for the selection of sites for lighthouses and buoys by the Joint Navy and Army Commission. She departed San Francisco 12 August 1-2; steamed via ports in Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil and arrived Norfolk 17 March 1853. She decommissioned the following day.

Massachusetts recommissioned at Norfolk 2 May 1854 Lt. Richard W. Meade in command. After fitting out, she departed for the Pacific 5 July, reached the Straits of Magellan 13 December, and arrived Mare Island 8 May 1855. During June and July she cruised the coast between San Francisco and the Columbia River, thence, she sailed for Central America 25 August. She showed the flag from Mexico to Nicaragua and returned to San Francisco 9 January 1856.

Following an Indian uprising along the coast of Puget Sound, Washington Territory, in October 1855, Massachusetts departed Mare Island 17 February 1856 with guns and ammunition for Seattle where she arrived 24 February. She operated in Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca for more than a year, visiting ports in Washington Territory and the British Crown Colony of Vancouver Island. She departed the Pacific Northwest 4 April 1847, reached Mare Island 9 April, and decommissioned there 17 June.

On 5 January 1859 Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey ordered the Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard to fit out off Massachusetts prior to transfer to the War Department. She was turned over to the Army Quartermaster Corps in May 1869 and during the next several years cruised Puget Sound "for the protection of the inhabitants of that quarter." The Quartermaster General of the Army ordered Massachusetts re transferred to the Navy 27 January 1862. Subsequently, she was placed in ordinary at Mare Island and surveyed.

Massachusetts underwent conversion to a storeship. Her engines were removed, and she was converted into a bark. Renamed Farallones in January 1863, she com missioned 17 June 1863, Acting Master C. C. Wells in command. She served ships of the Pacific Squadron as a storeship until February 1867 when she decommissioned at Mare Island. She was sold at San Francisco to Moore & Co., 15 May 1867.