USS ''Camanche'' was a

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

that was prefabricated at Jersey City, New Jersey by

Donahue Donahue is the Americanized version of Irish surname Donohoe, which, in turn, is an Anglicized version of the ancient Irish name "Donnchadh" (sometimes "Donncha"). Donncha was a common “first name” in 9th Century Ireland, and when the use of ...

, Ryan and Secor for the sum of $613,164.98 ($ in present day terms). She was disassembled and shipped around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

in the sailing ship ''Aquila'' to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. ''Aquila'' arrived in San Francisco on 10 November 1863 but sank at her wharf in 30 feet of water on 14 November 1863 as a result of storm damage and a collision with another ship. The monitor's parts were salvaged and she was launched on 14 November 1864. ''Camanche'' was commissioned in May 1865,

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

Charles J. McDougal in command. Commissioned just after the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, for more than a year—until the arrival of the larger monitor —''Camanche'' was the only U.S. ironclad on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

, and she was one of but two stationed there for nearly 25 years. ''Camanche''s career was a quiet one, with the ship generally maintained in decommissioned status at the

Mare Island Navy Yard The Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates t ...

, in northern San Francisco Bay. She was the

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Naval Militia A naval militia is a reserve military organization administered under the authority of a state government in the United States. It is often composed of reservists of the Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve, retirees ...

's training ship in 1896–97 and appears to have been reactivated for a few months in 1898, during the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

, for coastal defense purposes. ''Camanche'' was sold on 22 March 1899 for the sum of 6,581.25 dollars. According to page 10 of the

San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...

dated November 20, 1899, ''Camanche'' had her machinery, her weapons and her armor removed by the

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries ...

in Oakland and she was converted into a collier, hauling coal. Her first voyage as a collier occurred on November 19, 1899. Photographic evidence and local records indicate she remained in the San Francisco area hauling coal for almost 40 years after that. On March 5, 1937 a California newspaper the "Sausalito News" reported on the old monitors fate: "....So the old craft lay at her old home until a local coal concern bought her for a song, and converted her into a coal barge. She did duty until oil and gas took the place of coal and is now lying at the east end of the Bethlehem shipyard, a useless forgotten hulk. Her contract price was $400,000.00".Sausalito News, Volume LII, Number 10, 5 March 1937 California Digital newspaper collection accessed January 17,2019
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References

Bibliography

* * * Additional technical data from

External links

* (http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/camanche.htm) {{DEFAULTSORT:Camanche Passaic-class monitors Ships built in New Jersey Ships built in San Francisco 1864 ships Spanish–American War monitors of the United States Maritime incidents in November 1863