High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The USS Santee (1855) was a woodened-hulled, three-masted sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be so named and was one of its last sailing frigates in service. She was acquired by the Union Navy at the start of the American Civil War, outfitted with heavy guns and a crew of 480, and was assigned as a gunship in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. She later became a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy.