USS Merrimac (1894)

Merrimac being fitted out at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA, 23 April 1898
History
Name	1894: Solveig 1897: Merrimac
Namesake	1877 Merrimack River
Owner	1894: Christian Michelsen & Co 1897: JN Robbins & Co 1898: JT Hogan & Sons 1898: United States Navy
Port of registry	1894: Bergen 1897: New York
Builder	CS Swan & Hunter, Wallsend
Yard number	194
Launched	29 September 1894
Completed	November 1894
Acquired	by US Government, 12 April 1898
Commissioned	into US Navy, 11 April 1898
Fate	Sunk by Spanish Navy, 2 June 1898
General characteristics
Tonnage	3,380 GRT, 2,193 NRT
Length	330.0 ft (100.6 m)
Beam	44.0 ft (13.4 m)
Depth	18.8 ft (5.7 m)
Decks	1
Installed power	289 NHP
Propulsion	1 × screw 1 × triple-expansion steam engine
Speed	11.5 knots (21 km/h)

USS Merrimac, sometimes incorrectly spelt Merrimack, was a cargo steamship that was built in 1894 in England as Solveig for Norwegian owners, and renamed Merrimac when a US shipowner acquired her in 1897.

In 1898 Merrimac was commissioned into the United States Navy as a collier for the Spanish–American War. In June 1898 Spanish Navy ships sank her when she tried to trap them in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Merrimac is the only US ship that the Spanish Navy sank in that war.