USS Merrimack (1855)

U.S. Navy Steam frigate

For other ships with this name, see USS Merrimack.

USS Merrimack; Engraving by L.H. Bradford & Co., after a drawing by G.G. Pook

History
United States
Name| Merrimack
Ordered| 6 April 1854
Launched| 15 June 1855
Commissioned| 20 February 1856
Decommissioned| 16 February 1860
Fate|

* Burned and sunk in dock, 20 April 1861
* Raised and converted into ironclad CSS Virginia

General characteristics
Tonnage| 3,200
Length| 275 ft (84 m)
Beam| 38.5 ft (11.7 m)
Draft| 24 ft (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, variant spelling Merrimac, was a steam frigate, 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") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.

Merrimack was the first of six screw frigates (steam frigates powered by screw propellers) begun in 1854. Like others of her class (Wabash, Roanoke, Niagara, Minnesota and Colorado), she was named after a river. The Merrimack originates in New Hampshire and flows through the town of Merrimac, Massachusetts, often considered an older spelling which has sometimes caused confusion of the name.[1] After the ship was burned on April 20 1861, it was rebuilt with iron siding in the American Civil War by the Confederacy and renamed the Virginia.

## History

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USS Merrimack sectional view

### Creation

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Merrimack was launched by the Boston Navy Yard 15 June 1855, sponsored by Mary E. Simmons, and commissioned 20 February 1856, Captain Garrett J. Pendergrast in command. She was the second ship of the Navy to be named for the Merrimack River.[citation needed]

### Service

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Shakedown cruises took the new screw frigate to the Caribbean and to Western Europe. Merrimack visited Southampton, Brest, Lisbon, and Toulon before returning to Boston and decommissioning 22 April 1857 for repairs. Recommissioning 1 September 1857, Merrimack got underway from Boston Harbor 17 October as flagship for the Pacific Squadron. She rounded Cape Horn and cruised the Pacific coast of South and Central America until heading for home 14 November 1859. Upon returning to Norfolk, she decommissioned 16 February 1860.[2]

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 17 April 1861, 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 light boats in the channel between Craney Island and Sewell's Point, blocking Merrimack. On 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U.S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture.[3]

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

The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, raised Merrimack and rebuilt her as an ironclad ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. John Mercer Brooke, CSN. Commissioned as CSS Virginia 17 February 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.[citation needed]

## See also

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* American Civil War portal

* List of steam frigates of the United States Navy
* Union Navy
* Ships captured in the American Civil War
* Bibliography of American Civil War naval history

## Footnotes

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1. ^ Nelson, J. The Reign of Iron. 2004.
2. ^ Field, Ron (2008). Confederate Ironclad Vs Union Ironclad: Hampton Roads 1862. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. p. 12\. ISBN 978-1-84603-232-5. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
3. ^ "BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY-YARD; Eleven Vessels Scuttled and Burned, The Steam Tug Yankee Tows the Cumberland to Sea, Norfolk Not on Fire". The New York Times. New York City. 24 April 1861. Retrieved 2 August 2022. "The Government vessels had been scuttled in the afternoon before the Pawnee arrived, to prevent their being seized by the Secessionists… The following are the names of the vessels which were destroyed: Pennsylvania, 74 gun-ship; steam-frigate Merrimac, 44 guns; sloop-of-war Germantown, 22 guns; sloop Plymouth, 22 guns; frigate Raritan, 45 guns; frigate Columbia, 44 guns; Delaware, 74 gun-ship; Columbus, 74 gun-ship; United States, in ordinary; brig Dolphin, 8 guns; and the powder-boat… [plus] line-of-battle ship New-York, on the stocks… Large quantities of provisions, cordage and machinery were also destroyed — besides buildings of great value — but it is not positively known that the [dry] dock was blown up."

## References

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

## Bibliography

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* Canney, Donald L. (1990). The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Slops and Gunboats, 1815–1882. Vol. 1\. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-004-1.
* Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
* "Merrimack". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History & Heritage Command (NH&HC). Archived from the original on 14 March 2004. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
* Olmstead, Edwin; Stark, Wayne E.; Tucker, Spencer C. (1997). The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon. Alexandria Bay, New York: Museum Restoration Service. ISBN 0-88855-012-X.
* Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). Civil War Navies 1855–1883. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97870-X.
* 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

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* history.navy.mil/photos: USS Merrimack
* Journal of a Cruise onboard U.S. Steam Frigate Merrimack, 1856–1858, MS 15 held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy

* v
* t
* e

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1861

Shipwrecks|

* 20 Feb: Enchantress
* 5 Mar: Monarch
* 8 Apr: Witchcraft
* 20 Apr: USS Columbus, USS Delaware, USS Germantown, USS Merrimack, USS Pennsylvania, USS Plymouth, USS Raritan
* 21 Apr: USS Columbia, USS Dolphin, USS New York
* 1 Jun: Lord Hungerford
* 4 Jun: Canadian
* 3 Jul: Victory
* 28 Jul: Petrel
* 2 Aug: Stag Hound
* 3 Aug: HMS Driver
* 18 Aug: Jefferson Davis
* 1 Oct: Infernal
* 5 Oct: CSS Venus
* 11 Oct: USS South Wind
* 5 Nov: Prony
* 7 Nov: CSS Winslow
* 10 Nov: Keystone State
* 14 Nov: SMS Amazone
* 23 Nov: CSS Tuscarora
* 5 Dec: USS Phoenix
* 8 Dec: USS Cossack, USS Peter Demill, USS South America
* 19-20 Dec: USS Amazon, USS Garland, USS Rebecca Sims, USS Tenedos
* 20 Dec: USS American, USS Archer, USS Herald, USS L. C. Richmond, USS Leonidas
* 21 Dec: USS Kensington
* 29 Dec: HMS Conqueror
* December (unknown date): USS Lewis, USS Maria Theresa, USS Robin Hood
* Unknown date: Glentanner

Other incidents|

* 9 Jan: HMS Cossack
* 15 Jan: Anna Paulowna
* 4 Mar: Marco Polo
* 12 Mar: Black Prince
* 20-21 Apr: Nightingale
* 24 Apr: Defence
* 25 Apr: Syren
* 4 May: HMS Victor Emmanuel
* 13-14 May: North Star
* 19 May: USS Baltimore
* 10 Jun: HMS Hydra
* 6 Jul: HMS Aboukir
* August (unknown date): HMS Hecate, HMS Imperieuse
* 22 Oct: HMS Virago
* 8 Nov: Trent (Trent Affair)
* Unknown date: Challenger, Surprise

1860 1862

* v
* t
* e

The Battle of Hampton Roads

People|

* John Lorimer Worden
* Samuel Dana Greene
* Gideon Welles
* John Marston
* Franklin Buchanan
* Catesby ap Roger Jones
* Gustavus Fox
* Stephen Mallory
* French Forrest
* John Ericsson
* Louis N. Stodder

Ships|

* USS Monitor
* CSS Virginia
* USS Congress
* USS Cumberland
* USS Zouave
* USS Roanoke
* USS Minnesota
* USS St. Lawrence
* CSS Beaufort
* CSS Raleigh
* CSS Patrick Henry
* CSS Jamestown

Places|

* Hampton Roads
* Tidewater
* James River
* Elizabeth River
* Norfolk
* Fort Monroe
* Sewell's Point

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