Kansas departed Key West 6 August to determine positions for a submarine cable between Key West and Havana and returned a week later. She departed Key West 21 August and arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia, 5 September. She stood out of Halifax 17 September and arrived New York City 21 November after visiting Salem, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island, en route. She got underway for another surveying expedition of Central America 1 January 1873, which ended when she returned to Key West 15 July.
