(For ships with similar names, see USS Jones.) USS Commodore Jones (1863) was a ferryboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Ferryboats were of great value, since, because of their flat bottom and shallow draft, they could navigate streams and shallow waters that other ships could not. She was outfitted by the Union Navy as a heavily armed gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.