The first USS ''Casco'' was the first of a class of twenty 1,175-ton light-draft monitors built by Atlantic Works,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts for the

Union Navy The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were un ...

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 ...

Launch and refitting

Upon her launching in May 1864, it was found that the design of these ships was seriously flawed. She was pronounced unseaworthy when nearly completed and on 25 June 1864 she was ordered to be converted to a

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

vessel, without a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

or heavy guns. ''Casco'' was commissioned 4 December 1864. Casco Class Torepedo Plans

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which co ...

developed the original design for the ''Casco''-class monitors, but Chief Engineer

Alban C. Stimers Alban Crocker Stimers (June 5, 1827 – June 3, 1876) was a Chief Engineer with the United States Navy. He assisted with the design of the Navy's first ironclad, the , and later with the design of the ''Passaic''-class monitors. His later career w ...

, the General Inspector of Ironclads, elaborated it. When bids were requested for the ships, Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Gustavus Fox Gustavus Vasa Fox (June 13, 1821 – October 29, 1883) was an officer of the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War, and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War. Life and career Fox was born at Saugus, Ma ...

wrote to Ericsson to confirm that Stimers had arranged the details with Ericsson's approval. Ericsson replied that he had been kept in the dark and that Stimers had "frittered away" Ericsson's principles, but in March 1863, Fox began to award contracts anyway. The vessels received another redesign in the aftermath of Rear Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont's failed attack on Charleston, South Carolina, on 7 April 1863. Twenty vessels were ordered without serious scrutiny of the design. $14 million US was allocated for the construction of these vessels. It was discovered that Stimers and his assistant Theodore Allen had failed to compensate properly for the weight his revisions added to the original plan and this resulted in excessive stress on the hull and a freeboard of only . In June 1864, Stimers was removed from control of the project and Ericsson was called in to undo the damage. He was forced to raise the hulls of the monitors under construction by nearly two feet and the first few completed vessels had their turrets removed and a single pivot-mount Dahlgren cannon mounted. These same few vessels had a retractable

spar torpedo A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...

added as well.

Potomac Flotilla

After completion of the additional yard work, ''Casco'' was towed to Hampton Roads in March 1865. She assisted in the removal of mines in the James River which made possible the advance of naval forces to

Richmond, VA (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. In mid-April she was transferred to the Potomac Flotilla, with whom she served until the end of May. ''Casco'' was decommissioned 10 June 1865 at

Washington Navy Yard The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is the former shipyard and Weapon, ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy. The Yard currently serv ...

. In the widespread ship-renamings that took place in June 1869, ''Casco'' was given the new name ''Hero''. She saw no further active service, and she was broken up in April 1875.

References

* * Roberts, William H. (2002): ''Civil War Ironclads: Industrial Mobilization for the US Navy 1861–1865'', Johns Hopkins University Press.

External links

Images of USS ''Casco''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casco Casco-class monitors Ships built in Boston Ships of the Union Navy Torpedo boats of the United States Navy 1864 ships