Miantonomoh class monitor
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.jpg/300px-USS_Miantonomoh_(1863).jpg) USS Miantonomoh in Washington Navy Yard, 1865. |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Portsmouth Navy Yard New York Navy Yard Boston Navy Yard Philadelphia Navy Yard |
| In commission: | 4 October 1864 - 1872 |
| Completed: | 4 USS Miantonomoh USS Monadnock USS Agamenticus USS Tonawanda |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3,400 tons |
| Length: | 258 ft 6 in 78.79 m |
| Beam: | 52 ft 9 in 16.08 m |
| Draft: | 12 ft 8 in 3.86 m |
| Propulsion: | 4 Martin boilers, 2 shafts, Agamenticus, Monadnock: Ericsson vibrating lever engine Miantonomoh, Tonawanda: horizontal return connecting rod engine, 1,400 ihp (1,029 kW) |
| Speed: | 9 - 10 knots |
| Complement: | 150 |
| Armament: | 4 × 15 in (381 mm) smoothbore guns (2 × 2) |
| Armor: | Iron Side: 5 in (12.7 cm) Turrets: 10 in (25.4 cm) Deck: 1½ in (3.8 cm) |
The Miantonomoh class monitors of the U.S. Navy were constructed during the U.S. Civil War, but only one ship of the class actually took part in it. They were broken up in 1874/5.
The ships of this class were designed by the Bureau of Construction and Repair, and although unfortunately they were wooden-hulled, Monadnock, the only one to take part in the Civil War, was usually considered the best of the U.S. monitors. In 1865/6 she went to San Francisco, via the Straits of Magellan and although three ships were in company, she was not towed. Miantonomoh crossed the Atlantic in 1866, though she was towed for 1,100 miles by the side-wheel steamer Augusta. She returned in 1867 after a cruise of 17,767 miles. Agamenticus and Tonawanda were renamed Terror and Amphitrite respectively, 15 June 1869. The hull was of normal form without the Ericsson overhang, and freeboard is given as 2ft 7in. The armour was made up of 1in plates and there were pilot houses on both turrets, with armored bases to the funnel and a large ventilation shaft abaft it. The turrets were 23ft internal diameter and thus 2ft larger than in the Passaic class, and a light hurricane deck was rigged between them.
The wooden hulls decayed and their supposed rebuilding into the iron-hulled "New Navy" monitors of the same names, was a fiction to get round Congressional refusal to allocate any funds for new construction.
[edit] See also
for the new constructed monitors of the "New Navy"
[edit] References
- Gardiner, Robert (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, p. 121. ISBN 0 85177 133 5.
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