USS Princeton (1851) was a large 1,370-ton steamer with powerful guns, some of whose timbers were those from the first USS Princeton, the U.S. Navy’s first screw steam warship. Princeton was originally assigned to sail with Admiral Matthew C. Perry’s squadron to Japan, but broke down due to boiler problems just as the voyage was to start. She was laid up prior to the start of the American Civil War, but, when that war broke out, she was reactivated as a receiving ship at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.