USS Keokuk (1862)
| USS Keokuk | |
| Career | 100x35px |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Keokuk |
| Ordered: | March 1862 |
| Builder: | Charles W. Whitney, New York City |
| Laid down: | 1862 |
| Launched: | 6 December 1862 |
| Commissioned: | March 1863 |
| Fate: | Sunk, 8 April 1863 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ironclad warship |
| Displacement: | 677 long tons (688 t) |
| Length: | 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4-cylinder steam engine, 2 screws |
| Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement: | 92 officers and men |
| Armament: |
• 2 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns • Ram bow |
| Armor: | Alternating horizontal iron bars and oak, sheathed with sheet iron, 5.75 in (146 mm) |
USS Keokuk, an experimental ironclad steamer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Keokuk, Iowa. Her keel was laid down at New York City by Charles W. Whitney, with the name Moodna (sometimes incorrectly spelled "Woodna"). She was renamed while under construction, launched in December 1862 sponsored by Mrs. C. W. Whitney, wife of the builder, and commissioned in early March 1863 with Commander Alexander C. Rhind in command.
Design
The ship embodied some unusual concepts: her two stationary, cylindrical gun towers, each pierced with three gun ports, which often caused her to be mistaken for a double-turreted monitor; and her armor of horizontal iron bars alternating with planks of oak wood, sheathed with a boiler iron sheet. A total thickness of this composite armor was 5.75 in (146 mm)[1].
Service history
The new ironclad departed New York on 11 March and steamed south to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the attack on Charleston, South Carolina, and arrived at Newport News, Virginia, two days later. She got underway again on 17 March but returned to Hampton Roads for repairs when her port propeller fouled a buoy. She stood out of Hampton Roads again on 22 March and arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina on 26 March.
As the day of attack on Charleston approached, Keokuk and USS Bibb were busy laying buoys to guide Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont's ironclad flotilla, which included USS New Ironsides and seven monitors, into the strongly fortified Confederate harbor. The Union ships crossed the Stono Bar on 6 April but were prevented from attacking that day by hazy weather which obscured targets and blinded pilots.
The First Battle of Charleston Harbor began at noon on 7 April, but difficulties in clearing torpedoes from the path of Du Pont's ironclads slowed their progress. Shortly after 3 p.m., they came within range of Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter; and the battle began. Southern obstruction and a strong flood tide made the ironclad virtually unmanageable, while accurate fire from the forts played upon them at will. With the Union formation scrambled, Keokuk was compelled to run ahead of crippled USS Nahant to avoid fouling her in the narrow channel. This brought her less than 600 yards (550 m) from Fort Sumter, where she remained for half an hour receiving the undivided attention of the Confederate guns.
Keokuk was struck by about ninety projectiles, many of which hit at or below her waterline. Her experimental armor was completely inadequate to protect her from this onslaught and she was "completely riddled." She was able to withdraw and anchor out of range, thanks to the skills of her pilot, Robert Smalls, and her crew kept her afloat through the night. When a breeze came up on the morning of 8 April 1863, Keokuk began taking on more water, filled rapidly, and sank off Morris Island. She had given one month of commissioned service. One of Keokuk's sailors, Quartermaster Robert Anderson, was awarded the Medal of Honor in part for his actions during the battle.[2]
References
- ↑ Donald L. Canney, The Old Steam Navy. Volume Two. The Ironclads 1842-1885, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1993, ISBN 0-87021-586-8
- ↑ "Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients (A–L)". Medal of Honor Citations. U.S. Army Center of Military History. August 6, 2009. http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/civwaral.html. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
- This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Coker, P. C., III. Charleston's Maritime Heritage, 1670-1865: An Illustrated History. Charleston, S.C.: Coker-Craft, 1987. 314 pp.
External Links
- Photo gallery at Naval Historical Center
- Pages with broken file links
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
- New York articles missing geocoordinate data
- All articles needing coordinates
- Ships of the Union Navy
- Ships built in New York
- Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast
- 1862 ships
- Maritime incidents in 1863
