USS Merrimack (1855)

For other ships with this name, see USS Merrimack.

300px USS Merrimack; Engraving by L.H. Bradford & Co., after a drawing by G.G. Pook.
Career (US)	50px
Name:	Merrimack
Ordered:	April 6, 1854
Launched:	June 15, 1855
Commissioned:	February 20, 1856
Decommissioned:	February 16, 1860
Fate:	Burned and sunk in dock, April 20, 1861 Raised and converted into ironclad CSS Virginia
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,200 tons
Length:	275 feet (84 m)
Beam:	38.5 feet (11.7 m)
Draft:	24 feet (7.3 m)
Propulsion:	sail, steam engine
Speed:	12 knots
Armament:	14 × 8-inch guns, 2 × 10-inch guns, 24 × 9-inch guns

USS Merrimack (sometimes spelled without the "k") was a frigate and sailing vessel of the United States Navy, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship, CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The CSS Virginia then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack").

The Merrimack was the first of six screw frigates begun in 1854. Like others of her class (Wabash, Roanoke, Niagara, Minnesota and Colorado), she was named after a river. In Massachusetts, the Merrimack River flows through the town of Merrimac, often considered an older spelling which has sometimes caused confusion of the name.

History

Merrimack was launched by the Boston Navy Yard June 15, 1855; sponsored by Miss Mary E. Simmons; and commissioned February 20, 1856, Captain Garrett J. Pendergrast in command. She was the second ship of the Navy to be named for the Merrimack River, which is formed by the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers at Franklin, New Hampshire. The Merrimack flows south across New Hampshire, and then eastward across northeastern Massachusetts before emptying in the Atlantic at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Shakedown took the new crew frigate to the Caribbean and to western Europe. Merrimack visited Southampton, Brest, Lisbon, and Toulon before returning to Boston and decommissioning April 22, 1857 for repairs. Recommissioning September 1, 1857, Merrimack got underway from Boston Harbor October 17 as flagship for the Pacific Squadron. She rounded Cape Horn and cruised the Pacific coast of South and Central America until heading for home November 14, 1859. Upon returning to Norfolk, she decommissioned February 16, 1860.

File:USS Merrimack;h58880.jpg

USS Merrimack aflame during the burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard, April 20, 1861.

Merrimack was still in ordinary during the crisis preceding Lincoln's inauguration. Soon after becoming Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles took action to prepare the frigate for sea, planning to move her to Philadelphia. The day before the firing on Fort Sumter, Welles directed that "great vigilance be exercised in guarding and protecting"; Norfolk Navy Yard and her ships. On the afternoon of April 17, the day Virginia seceded, Engineer in Chief B. F. Isherwood managed to get the frigate's engines lit off; but the previous night secessionists had sunk lightboats in the channel between Craney Island and Sewell's Point, blocking Merrimack. On the April 20, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U.S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture.

The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, raised Merrimack and rebuilt her as an ironclad ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. J. M. Brooke, CSN. Commissioned as CSS Virginia February 17, 1862, the ironclad was the hope of the Confederacy to destroy the wooden ships in Hampton Roads, and to end the Union blockade which had already seriously impeded the Confederate war effort.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Bibliography

• Nelson, James L. 2004. The Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack. HarperCollins Publishers, NY. ISBN 0-06-052403-0

External links

• history.navy.mil/danfs: USS Merrimack
• history.navy.mil/photos: USS Merrimack