Kearsarge was recommissioned on 2 November 1888 and largely spent her remaining years protecting American interests in the West Indies, off Venezuela, and along the Central Americas.
In October 1889 she carried famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass to Haiti, where Douglass was to be minister and consul general.
 On President Harrison's orders, she sailed to Navassa Island in 1891 to investigate labor conditions there.
She departed Haiti on 20 January 1894 for Bluefields, Nicaragua, but she wrecked on a reef off Roncador Cay on 2 February.
Her officers and crew made it safely ashore.

Congress appropriated $45,000 to tow Kearsarge home, but a salvage team of the Boston Towboat Company found that she could not be refloated.
Some artifacts were saved from the ship, including the ship's Bible.
The salvaged items, along with a damaged section of her stern post with an unexploded shell from CSS Alabama still embedded in it, are now stored or on display at the Washington Navy Yard.
 According to the US Naval Academy Museum, after the battle with Alabama the shell was removed and the stern post was replaced.
 Kearsarge was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1894.
Kearsarge was recommissioned on 2 November 1888 and largely spent her remaining years protecting American interests in the West Indies, off Venezuela, and along the Central Americas. In October 1889 she carried famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass to Haiti, where Douglass was to be minister and consul general.  On President Harrison's orders, she sailed to Navassa Island in 1891 to investigate labor conditions there. She departed Haiti on 20 January 1894 for Bluefields, Nicaragua, but she wrecked on a reef off Roncador Cay on 2 February. Her officers and crew made it safely ashore.
Congress appropriated $45,000 to tow Kearsarge home, but a salvage team of the Boston Towboat Company found that she could not be refloated. Some artifacts were saved from the ship, including the ship's Bible. The salvaged items, along with a damaged section of her stern post with an unexploded shell from CSS Alabama still embedded in it, are now stored or on display at the Washington Navy Yard.  According to the US Naval Academy Museum, after the battle with Alabama the shell was removed and the stern post was replaced.  Kearsarge was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1894.
USS Kearsarge (1861)