Edward Hartt (1825-1883) was a United States Navy constructor who oversaw or participated in the construction of many prominent

ironclad An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...

and tinclad naval ships used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Hart was born in 1825 in

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

, to ship builder

Samuel Hartt Samuel Hartt (1786–1860) was a prominent American shipbuilder for the U.S. Navy who built various warships used from the War of 1812 to the U.S. Civil War, including the first steamship and ironclad warships of the U.S. Navy. Shipbuilding caree ...

. Hart was also a grandson of

Edmund Hartt Edmund Hartt (1744-1824) was a master carpenter and owned the shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts where was constructed in 1797. The shipyard was located in the North End of Boston, near the location of the present Coast Guard base. He also built ...

, builder of the USS ''Constitution''. Edward Hartt became a shipbuilder himself and participated in the construction of the ironclad USS ''Monitor'' (1862) and various gunboats for Commander Joseph B. Hull in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, during the Civil War. Hartt oversaw the construction of the tinclads USS ''St. Clair'' and ''Brilliant'', the ironclads USS ''Choctaw'' and ''Lafayette, and the monitors USS ''Neosho'' and ''Osage''. He also converted various other vessels to be tinclad as well. The Navy eventually transferred Hartt with Hull to the

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries. Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the cit ...

where Hartt was a full navy constructor, and then in 1879 Hartt went to New London naval station. He died in 1883.Smith, ''Tinclads in the Civil War,'' pp. 42-50, 75

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartt, Edward American shipbuilders American naval architects