| Wampanoag -- a screw frigate -- was laid down on 3 August
17863 by the New York Navy Yard, New York; launched on 15 December 1864;
sponsored by Miss Cast, daughter of Capt. Augustus Ludlow Case, second-in-command
of the navy yard; and commissioned on 17 September 1867, Capt. J. W. A. Nicholson
in command. |
| Commerce raiding by CSS
Alabama and
CSS Florida, both built
in English yards, reached a point in 1863 where continued peaceful relations
between the United States and Great Britain were seriously jeopardized. As
a result, Congress responded by authorizing construction of a new class of
screw frigates as part of the naval procurement bill of that year. These
vessels, designed to be the fastest in the world, were intended for use in
hit-and-run operations against British ports and commerce in the event of
war. Wampanoag was the lead ship of this class. |
| Wampanoag contained numerous design features unprecedented
in American naval construction. Her hull -- designed by clipper ship architect
B. G. Delano -- was unusually long and tapered relative to the vessel's beam.
Her machinery, developed by controversial Naval Engineer B. F. Isherwood,
was unique for its geared steam engine in which slow-moving machinery coupled
to fast-moving propulsion gear. Tremendous debate caused by this design delayed
construction, preventing Wampanoag from being completed in time to serve
in the Civil War. |
| The screw frigate finally left New York for sea trials on 7 February
1868. On 11 February, she commenced speed tests, running flat-out in rough
weather from Barnegat Light, New Jersey, to Tybee Island, Georgia. She covered
the distance of 788 miles in 38 hours for an average sustained speed of 16.6
knots, at one point making 17.75 knots. Another naval vessel, American cruiser
Charleston, did not equal this record for 21 years. |
| From 22 February 1868 to 8 April, Wampanoag was deployed as flagship
of the North Atlantic Fleet. On 5 May 1868, she decommissioned at the New
York Navy Yard. Wampanoag was renamed Florida on 15 May 1869. |
| The controversy generated by the frigate's unconventional design
reached a peak in 1869 when a naval Admiral R. M. Goldsborough, Commodore
Charles S. Boggs, and Engineers E. D. Robie, John W. Moore, and Isaac Newton
judged the ship unacceptable for active duty in the Navy. They complained
of her unusually large machinery spaces, heavy coal consumption, and found
particular fault with her narrow breadth relative to her length. The commission
said this caused inordinate rolling and straining of the vessel. As a result,
Florida remained in ordinary at New York for five years before departing
on 5 March 1974, bound for New London, Connecticut, to become a receiving
and store ship at the Naval station there. |
| Florida remained at New London, rotting, until February 1885.
She was sold, at New York, on 27 February 1885 to Edwin LeBars. |
Displacement, 4,215; Length, 355'; Beam, 45'2";
Draft, 19'; Speed, 19 knots; Armament, ten 8" smooth bore, two 100-pdrs.,
two 24-pdr howitzers, two 12-pdr. Howitzers, one 60-pdr. rifle
pivot. |
|
Bibliography
 |
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1977), Vol.2: C-F, p. 418 |
|
|
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1981), Vol.8: W-Z, p. 86-87 |
|
|
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