USS Ajax (1864)

Ajax during the Spanish–American War
History
United States
Name
  • Manayunk
  • Ajax
Namesake
Ordered15 September 1862
BuilderSnowden & Mason, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Laid down1862
Launched18 December 1864
Completed27 September 1865
Commissioned1 January 1871
Decommissioned1 September 1898
RenamedAjax, 15 June 1869
FateSold for scrap, 10 October 1899
General characteristics
Class and typeCanonicus-class monitor
Displacement2,100 long tons (2,100 t)
Tons burthen1,034 tons (bm)
Length235 ft (72 m)
Beam43 ft 8 in (13.31 m)
Draft13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speedkn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Complement100 officers and enlisted men
Armament2 × 15-inch (381 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore guns
Armor

USS Ajax, originally named USS Manayunk after a town in Pennsylvania, was a single-turreted Canonicus-class monitor built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Completed after the end of the war, Ajax was laid up until 1871, although she received her new name in 1869. The ship was briefly activated in 1871, before a much longer commission began in 1874–1875. She was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron during this time. Ajax was again placed in reserve in 1891. The ship was on militia duty when the Spanish–American War began and she was recommissioned in 1898, to defend Baltimore, Maryland, although she was decommissioned later in the year before the necessary refit could be completed. Ajax was sold for scrap in 1899.