USS Roanoke (1855)

USS Roanoke as a steam frigate
History
Union Navy Jack United States
NameUSS Roanoke
NamesakeRoanoke River
BuilderNorfolk Navy Yard
Laid downMay 1854
Launched13 December 1855
Commissioned4 May 1857
Decommissioned24 September 1857
Recommissioned18 August 1858
Decommissioned1860
Recommissioned20 June 1861
Refit25 March 1862
Decommissioned25 March 1863
Recommissioned29 June 1863 as a monitor
Decommissioned20 June 1865
Recommissioned13 January 1874
Decommissioned12 June 1875
Stricken5 August 1882
FateSold for scrap, 27 September 1883
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeMerrimack-class screw frigate
Displacement4,472 long tons (4,544 t)
Tons burthen3,400 bm
Length263 ft 8 in (80.4 m) (p/p)
Beam51 ft 4 in (15.6 m)
Draft23 ft 9 in (7.2 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
Sail planShip rig
Speed8.8 knots (16.3 km/h; 10.1 mph)
Complement674
Armament
  • 1 × 10 in (254 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren gun
  • 28 × 9 in (229 mm) Dahlgren guns
  • 14 × 8 in (203 mm) Dahlgren guns
General characteristics (after reconstruction)
TypeMonitor
Displacement6,300 long tons (6,400 t)
Beam53 ft 3 in (16.2 m)
Speed8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph)
Complement347
Armament
  • 2 × 15 in (381 mm) Dahlgren guns
  • 2 × 150-pounder Parrott rifle
  • 2 × 11 in (279 mm) Dahlgren guns
Armor

USS Roanoke was a wooden-hulled Merrimack-class screw frigate built for the United States Navy in the mid-1850s. She served as flagship of the Home Squadron in the late 1850s and captured several Confederate ships after the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The ship was converted into an ironclad monitor during 1862–63; the first ship with more than two gun turrets in history. Her conversion was not very successful as she rolled excessively, and the weight of her armor and turrets strained her hull. Her deep draft meant that she could not operate off shallow Confederate ports and she was relegated to harbor defense at Hampton Roads, Virginia for the duration of the war. Roanoke was placed in reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1883.