USS Nyack () was a wooden-hulled screw gunboat of the United States Navy that saw action in the American Civil War. After the Civil war, she was transferred to the Pacific where she patrolled the west coast of South America until she was decommissioned in 1871. She was sold and broken up in 1883. Construction and characteristics Nyack's wooden hull was built at the New York Navy Yard. Her keel was laid on 25 March 1863. She was long with a beam of and a fully-loaded draft of . Her depth of hold was . Her capacity was 593 tons burden. Nyack's machinery was designed by the Bureau of Steam Engineering under Benjamin Isherwood, Chief Engineer of the Navy. Her machinery was built by South Brooklyn Iron Works. She had two coal-fired boilers which provided steam to two steam engines, each with a single cylinder with a diameter of and a stroke of . These drove a single propeller which gave the ship a maximum speed of 10 knots. As originally constructed, her armament included 100-pounder and 30-pounder Parrott rifles, two 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns, two 24-pounder guns, a 12-pounder, and a 12-pounder heavy rifle. Her battery was changed several times during her commission. Nyack was launched on 6 October 1863. She was christened by Emma Paulding, daughter of Admiral Hiram Paulding. Her machinery was installed and the ship delivered to the Navy on 20 July 1864. She was commissioned on 28 September 1864, under the command of Lieutenant Commander L. Howard Newman. Her original cost was $257,952.12. Her crew consisted of about 100 men. Her namesake is the town of Nyack, New York. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning "point" or "corner". Rear Admiral David Porter, under whose command Nyack sailed during the Civil War, commented specifically on her and the small gunboats of her class: These vessels, though, have proved themselves a perfect success as steam gunboats. They are fast, steady at sea, and come up in every respect to the requirements of a good vessel-of-war. They will all average eleven knots, are of light draught [sic] and will enter most of these southern harbors at high water. I do not think that they have canvas enough to cruise under sail alone, and the sail is only serviceable to them in very fresh breezes, or in lying to in a gale. As sea-boats these