View source for USS Merrimack (1855)

{{Short description|U.S. Navy Steam frigate}}
{{For|other ships with this name|USS Merrimack}}
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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Merrimack;h46248.jpg
|Ship caption=USS Merrimack; Engraving by L.H. Bradford & Co., after a drawing by G.G. Pook
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1854}}
|Ship name=''Merrimack''
|Ship ordered=6 April 1854
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=15 June 1855
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=20 February 1856
|Ship decommissioned=16 February 1860
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship struck=
|Ship honours=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=*Burned and sunk in dock, 20 April 1861
*Raised and converted into ironclad [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']]
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class=
|Ship tonnage=3,200
|Ship length={{convert|275|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|38.5|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught=
|Ship draft={{convert|24|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship speed=12&nbsp;knots
|Ship propulsion=sail, steam engine
|Ship complement=
|Ship armament=*14 × 8-inch guns,
*2 × 10-inch guns,
*24 × 9-inch guns
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
'''USS ''Merrimack''''', also improperly '''''Merrimac''''', was a [[steam frigate]], best known as the [[Hull (watercraft)|hull]] upon which the [[ironclad warship]] [[CSS Virginia|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 ''[[USS Monitor|Monitor]]'' and the ''Merrimack''") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.
''Merrimack'' was the first of six [[Steam frigate|screw frigates]] (steam frigates powered by screw propellers) begun in 1854. Like others of her class ({{USS|Wabash|1855|2}}, {{USS|Roanoke|1855|2}}, {{USS|Niagara|1855|2}}, {{USS|Minnesota|1855|2}} and {{USS|Colorado|1856|2}}), she was named after a river.  The [[Merrimack River|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.<ref name="nelson">Nelson, J. The Reign of Iron. 2004.</ref>
== History ==
[[File:USS Merrimack (1855) sectional view.png|thumb|USS ''Merrimack'' sectional view]]
=== Creation ===
''Merrimack'' was launched by the [[Boston Navy Yard]] 15 June 1855, [[ship sponsor|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]].{{fact|date=July 2024}}
=== Service ===
[[Shakedown cruise]]s took the new screw frigate to the [[Caribbean Sea|Caribbean]] and to Western Europe. ''Merrimack'' visited [[Southampton]], [[Brest, France|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 America|South]] and Central America until heading for home 14 November 1859. Upon returning to [[Norfolk Navy Yard|Norfolk]], she decommissioned 16 February 1860.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Field |first1=Ron |title=Confederate Ironclad Vs Union Ironclad: Hampton Roads 1862 |date=2008 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-1-84603-232-5 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pi21CwAAQBAJ |access-date=13 December 2023}}</ref>
''Merrimack'' was still [[in ordinary]] during the crisis preceding [[Abraham Lincoln|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 [[Benjamin F. Isherwood|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 (Virginia)|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.<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=24 April 1861 |title=BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY-YARD; Eleven Vessels Scuttled and Burned, The Steam Tug ''Yankee'' Tows the ''Cumberland'' to Sea, Norfolk Not on Fire. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/04/24/archives/burning-of-gosport-navyyard-eleven-vessels-scuttled-and-burned-the.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City |access-date=2 August 2022 |quote=The Government vessels had been scuttled in the afternoon before the [[USS Pawnee (1859)|''Pawnee'']] arrived, to prevent their being seized by the Secessionists… The following are the names of the vessels which were destroyed: [[USS Pennsylvania (1837)|''Pennsylvania'']], 74 gun-ship; steam-frigate ''Merrimac'', 44 guns; sloop-of-war [[USS Germantown (1846)|''Germantown'']], 22 guns; sloop [[USS Plymouth (1844)|''Plymouth'']], 22 guns; frigate [[USS Raritan (1843)|''Raritan'']], 45 guns; frigate [[USS Columbia (1836)|''Columbia'']], 44 guns; [[USS Delaware (1820)|''Delaware'']], 74 gun-ship; [[USS Columbus (1819)|''Columbus'']], 74 gun-ship; [[USS United States (1797)|''United States'']], in ordinary; brig [[USS Dolphin (1836)|''Dolphin'']], 8 guns; and the powder-boat… [plus] line-of-battle ship [[List of ships of the line of the United States Navy|''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 [[Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard |[dry] dock]] was blown up.}}</ref>
[[File:USS Merrimack - NH 58880.jpg|thumb|left|USS ''Merrimack'' aflame during the burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard, 20 April 1861]]
The [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], in desperate need of ships, raised ''Merrimack'' and rebuilt her as an [[ironclad]] [[ram (ship)|ram]], according to a design prepared by [[John Mercer Brooke|Lt. John Mercer Brooke, CSN]]. Commissioned as [[CSS Virginia|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.{{fact|date=July 2024}}
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==See also==
<!-- Reminder to those who routinely delete 'See also' links: [[WP:ALSO]]: "The links in the "See also" section do not have to be directly related to the topic of the article, because one purpose of "See also" links is to enable readers to explore tangentially related topics."  The only way some pages are ever discovered and read is through 'See also'. -->
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
*[[List of steam frigates of the United States Navy]]
*[[Union Navy]]
*[[List of ships captured in the 19th century#American Civil War|Ships captured in the American Civil War]]
*[[Bibliography of early United States naval history#American Civil War|Bibliography of American Civil War naval history]]
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==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
== References ==
{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/m9/merrimack-ii.htm}}
==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Canney|first=Donald L.|title=The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Slops and Gunboats, 1815–1882|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1990|volume=1|isbn=0-87021-004-1}}
* {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/m9/merrimack-ii.htm|title=''Merrimack''|work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships|publisher=[[Naval History & Heritage Command]] (NH&HC)|access-date=1 February 2013}}
* {{cite book|last1=Olmstead|first1=Edwin|last2=Stark|first2=Wayne E.|last3=Tucker|first3=Spencer C.|date=1997|title=The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon|publisher=Museum Restoration Service|location=Alexandria Bay, New York|isbn=0-88855-012-X}}
*{{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Civil War Navies 1855–1883|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=2006|series=The U.S. Navy Warship Series|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 ==
*[http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/merimak2.htm history.navy.mil/photos: USS ''Merrimack'']
*[https://www.usna.edu/Library/sca/man-findingaids/MS_015.EAD.xml 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
{{1861 shipwrecks}}{{Battle of Hampton Roads|state=autocollapse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrimack 1855}}
[[Category:Sailing frigates of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Battle of Hampton Roads]]
[[Category:New Hampshire in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Ships of the Union Navy]]
[[Category:Vessels captured from the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Virginia coast]]
[[Category:Ships built in Boston]]
[[Category:1855 ships]]
[[Category:Scuttled vessels]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in April 1861]]