USS Tonawanda (1864)

Tonawanda in the Severn River while serving as a training ship c. 1870
History
United States
NameTonawanda
NamesakeTonawanda Creek, New York
BuilderPhiladelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laid down1863
Launched6 May 1864
Commissioned12 October 1865
Decommissioned22 December 1865
Recommissioned23 October 1866
Decommissioned1872
RenamedAmphitrite, 15 June 1869
FateScrapped, 1873–1874
General characteristics
Class and typeMiantonomoh-class monitor
Displacement3,400 long tons (3,455 t)
Length259 ft 6 in (79.1 m) (o/a)
Beam52 ft 10 in (16.1 m)
Draft13 ft 5 in (4.1 m)
Depth14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 shafts; 4 HRCR steam engines
Speed9–10 knots (17–19 km/h; 10–12 mph)
Complement150 officers and enlisted men
Armament2 × twin 15 in (381 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns
Armor
  • Side: 5 in (127 mm)
  • Turrets: 10 in (254 mm)
  • Pilothouse: 8 in (203 mm)
  • Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)

USS Tonawanda was one of four Miantonomoh-class monitors built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. Commissioned in 1865 after the war ended in May, the ship was decommissioned at the end of the year, but was reactivated to serve as a training ship at the United States Naval Academy in 1866. She was renamed Amphitrite in 1869 and was decommissioned again in 1872. The monitor was sold for scrap the following year. The Navy Department evaded the Congressional refusal to order new ships by claiming that the Civil War-era ship was being repaired while building a new monitor of the same name.