USS ''Shiloh'' was a single-turreted, twin-screw

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 slated to enter service with the

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. The contract for her construction was awarded on 24 June 1863 to George C. Bestor of

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. Her keel was laid down later that year at the yard of Charles W. McCordat of

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. However, while ''Shiloh'' was still under construction, , one of the first of the ''Casco''-class monitors to be launched, was found to be

unseaworthy Seakeeping ability or seaworthiness is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea stat ...

Design revisions

Though the original designs for the ''Casco''-class monitors were drawn by

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 com ...

, the final revision was created by Chief Engineer Alban C. Stimers following

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Samuel F. Du Pont's failed bombardment of

Fort Sumter Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battl ...

in 1863. By the time that the plans were put before the Monitor Board in

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, Ericsson and Stimers had a poor relationship, and Chief of the

Bureau of Construction and Repair The Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) was the part of the United States Navy which from 1862 to 1940 was responsible for supervising the design, construction, conversion, procurement, maintenance, and repair of ships and other craft for the ...

John Lenthall had little connection to the board. This resulted in the plans being approved and 20 vessels ordered without serious scrutiny of the new design. US$14 million was allocated for the construction of these vessels. It was discovered that Stimers had failed to compensate for the armor his revisions added to the original plan and this resulted in excessive stress on the wooden hull frames and a freeboard of only . Stimers was removed from the 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 to make them seaworthy. On 25 June 1864, the Navy Department ordered ''Shiloh's'' builder to raise her deck to give her sufficient freeboard, then on 17 June 1865, after the end of the

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had prompted an American naval retrenchment, work on ''Shiloh'' was ordered suspended. Nevertheless, it was decided to proceed with her launching; and an unsuccessful attempt to get her off the ways was made on 3 July 1865. After much labor, the ship finally entered the water 11 days later.

Fate

''Shiloh'' saw no service before being laid up in 1866 at

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. On 15 June 1869, she was renamed . In the same year, she was moved to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and laid up there. On 17 September 1874, the monitor was commissioned; but she saw no significant service before she was decommissioned on 5 October 1874 and again laid up at New Orleans on 15 October 1874. She was sold later that year.

References

Bibliography

*Roberts, William H. (2002): ''Civil War Ironclads: Industrial Mobilization for the US Navy 1861–1865'', Johns Hopkins University Press, {{DEFAULTSORT:Shiloh (1865) Casco-class monitors Ships built in Mound City, Illinois 1865 ships