USS Michigan (1843)
| Wolverine USS Michigan, seen here after her name was changed to USS Wolverine in 1905. | |
| Career (US) | 100x35px |
|---|---|
| Name: | Michigan |
| Laid down: | 1842 |
| Launched: | 5 December 1843 |
| Commissioned: | 29 September 1844 |
| Decommissioned: | 6 May 1912 |
| Renamed: | Wolverine on 17 June 1905 |
| Struck: | 6 May 1912 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1949 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 685 tons |
| Length: | 163 ft (50 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 330 ihp (250 kW) steam engines |
| Speed: | 10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 115 tons of coal |
| Complement: | 88 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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File:USS Wolverine (IX-31) 002.jpg USS Wolverine in a Great Lakes port in the early 1900s. File:USS Wolverine (IX-31).jpg USS Wolverine (IX-31) |
USS Michigan was the United States Navy's first iron-hulled warship and served during the American Civil War. She was renamed USS Wolverine in 1905.
Contents
Early career
Michigan operated on the Great Lakes out of Erie, Pennsylvania, throughout her career. In May 1851, she assisted in the arrest of Mr. James Jesse Strang, known as "King James I", who headed a dissident Mormon colony on Beaver Island at the head of Lake Michigan, some 37 mi (60 km) from the Straits of Mackinac. Strang was soon freed, but was assassinated by two of his followers on 19 June 1856. The assassins fled to Michigan for sanctuary and were taken to Mackinac and released.
In an encounter with Great Lakes "timber pirates" in the 1850s, a steamer rammed Michigan. The pirate vessel was badly damaged in the maneuver, and was captured.
American Civil War
During the American Civil War, Michigan was armed with a 30-pounder Parrott rifle, five 20-pounder Parrott rifles, six 24-pounder smoothbores, and two 12-pounder boat howitzers. The Confederate States of America considered launching attacks against the North from Canada. Early in 1863, Lieutenant William Henry Murdaugh, CSN, planned to lead a group of Confederate naval officers to Canada where they would purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians and steam to Erie to board Michigan and use her against locks and shipping on the Great Lakes. However, Confederate President Jefferson Davis didn't approve the plan.
Michigan cruised on the Great Lakes during most of the war providing an element of stability and security. On 28 July 1863, a short time after New York City had been seriously shaken by riots, Commander John C. Carter commanding Michigan reported from Detroit, "I found the people suffering under serious apprehensions of a riot....The presence of the ships perhaps did something toward overawing the refractory, and certainly did much to allay the apprehensions of the excited, doubting people." During August 1863, Michigan was called on for similar service in Buffalo, New York.
During 1864, rumors of Confederate conspiracies in Canada were heard again. In March, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Michigan to be "prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit." In the autumn, the Confederates finally struck. Led by Acting Master John Yates Beall, 20 Confederates embarked on the steamer Philo Parsons as passengers and soon seized her. They next captured and burned the steamer Island Queen. Meanwhile, Captain Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate agent in the Lake Erie region, was attempting to gain the trust of Michigan's officers as the Michigan lay off Johnson's Island helping to guard Confederate prisoners. However, Commander Carter discovered Cole's duplicity and had him arrested before Beall reached Johnson's Island on Philo Parsons. When the prearranged signals from shore were not made, Beall reluctantly abandoned his plan and retired to Sandwich (now Windsor, Ontario) where he stripped and burned Philo Parsons.
After the Civil War, Michigan remained in U.S. Navy service, and was the ship which intercepted and interned the army of the Fenian Brotherhood as it returned from its invasion of Canada near Buffalo in 1866. Michigan was renamed USS Wolverine on 17 June 1905 to free up the name Michigan for use by the new battleship USS Michigan (BB-27).
Wolverine was decommissioned on 6 May 1912.
Wolverine was turned over to the Pennsylvania Naval Militia, which she served for 11 years, making training cruises in the summer for the United States Naval Reserve. For the 1913 centennial of the War of 1812 Battle of Lake Erie, Wolverine towed the brig USS Niagara from port to port as part of the celebrations. In mid-1920, when the U.S. Navy adopted its modern alphanumeric hull number system, she was classified as a "miscellaneous auxiliary" and designated IX-31.
On 12 August 1923, a connecting rod of Wolverine's port cylinder broke, ending her active career.
Relic
In 1927, Wolverine's hulk was pushed up onto a sandbank in Presque Isle Bay and loaned to the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, as a relic. She was sold to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Original USS Michigan, Inc., on 19 July 1948. But when fundraising efforts failed to acquire sufficient money for her restoration and preservation, she was cut up and sold for scrap in 1949.
In 1950, Wolverine's prow was erected as a monument in Wolverine Park in Erie, near the shipyard where she had been built. On 22 February 1988, the prow was moved to the Erie Maritime Museum for restoration. Today it can be viewed inside the museum.
References
| USS Wolverine (IX-31)
]]- Taylor, Michael J.H. (1990). Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. Studio. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.
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