USS ''Catawba'' was a single-turreted built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Completed shortly after the end of the war, ''Catawba'' was laid up until sold to her builders in 1868, and then resold to the

Peruvian Navy The Peruvian Navy ( es, link=no, Marina de Guerra del Perú, abbreviated MGP) is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to from the Peruvian littoral. Addit ...

. Renamed ''BAP Atahualpa'', the ship participated in the defense of main port of Peru,

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...

, during the War of the Pacific. When the city of Lima was taken by Chilean troops in 1881, she was scuttled to prevent her capture. ''Atahualpa'' was later refloated and used as a storage

hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...

until

scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

in the early 20th century.

Design

''Catawba'' was

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

, had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and had a maximum draft of . ''Catawba'' had a tonnage of 1,034

tons burthen Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship bas ...

and displaced . Her crew consisted of 100 officers and enlisted men. ''Catawba'' was powered by a two-cylinder horizontal Ericsson vibrating-lever steam engine that drove one

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

using steam generated by four Stimers horizontal

fire-tube boiler A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot gases pass from a fire through one or more tubes running through a sealed container of water. The heat of the gases is transferred through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating t ...

s. The engine gave the ship a top speed of . She carried of coal. ''Catawba''s main armament consisted of two smoothbore, muzzle-loading, Dahlgren guns mounted in a single gun turret. Each gun weighed approximately . They could fire a shell up to a range of at an elevation of +7°. The exposed sides of the hull were protected by five layers of wrought iron plates, backed by wood. The armor of the gun turret and the pilot house consisted of ten layers of one-inch plates. The ship's deck was protected by armor thick. A soft iron band was fitted around the base of the turret to prevent shells and fragments from jamming the turret as had happened during the

First Battle of Charleston Harbor The First Battle of Charleston Harbor was an engagement near Charleston, South Carolina that took place April 7, 1863, during the American Civil War. The striking force was a fleet of nine ironclad warships of the Union Navy, including seven m ...

in April 1863. The base of the funnel was protected to a height of by of armor. A "rifle screen" of armor high was installed on the top of the turret to protected the crew against Confederate

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

s based on a suggestion by

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

Tunis A. M. Craven Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven (11 January 1813 – 5 August 1864) was an officer in the United States Navy. His career included service in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Early life Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven was b ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

Construction

The contract for ''Catawba'', the first Navy ship to be named after the Catawba River, in North Carolina, was awarded to Alexander Swift & Company; the ship was laid down in 1862, at their Cincinnati, Ohio, shipyard. She was launched on 13 April 1864, and turned over to the US Navy, on 7 June 1865. The ship's construction was delayed by multiple changes ordered while she was being built that reflected battle experience with earlier monitors. This included the rebuilding of the turrets and pilot houses to increase their armor thickness from eight inches to and to replace the bolts that secured their armor plates together with rivets to prevent them from being knocked loose by the shock of impact from shells striking the turret. Other changes included deepening the hull by to increase the ship's buoyancy, moving the position of the turret to balance the ship's trim and replacing all of the ship's deck armor. Completion of the ship was further delayed by the low depth of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, which prevented its movement from Cincinnati, in December 1864, to finish its fitting out. The river finally rose in March 1865, allowing the ship to reach Mound City, Illinois, on 7 March. ''Catawba'' was placed in ordinary there after completion, together with two of her sisters. The ships needed a deep-water berth and were moved opposite Cairo, Illinois, in mid-1865, even though they still had to be anchored in the main channel, where they were often struck by debris, drifting ice, and vulnerable to accidents. ''Tippecanoe''s anchor chain was broken on 27 March 1866, when she was struck by a

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

towing barges; the monitor collided with and the two ships were dragged downstream before they could be brought under control. This was a persistent problem and the Navy finally decided to move the ships down to New Orleans in May 1866. In August 1867, the Navy turned over ''Catawba'' and ''Oneota'' to Swift & Co., contingent on a guarantee that they would be returned in good shape if they could not be sold, and the company began refitting them for Peruvian service. In October 1867, an agent for Swift & Co. negotiated a deal with Peru, to purchase ''Catawba'' and her sister, for a million dollars apiece. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, initially indicated that the company could repurchase the pair if it refunded the government's costs to build them, but changed his mind and said that he had no authority to do that. Congress debated the issue and ultimately decided that they would be appraised by a board of officers and that the highest competitive bid in equal to or in excess of the appraised value would be accepted. The ship was appraised at $375,000, and sold for that amount, possibly after a rigged bid, on 11 April 1868.

''Atahualpa''

''Catawba'' was renamed ''Atahualpa'', after the Emperor

Atahualpa Atahualpa (), also Atawallpa (Quechua), Atabalica, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa (c. 1502 – 26-29 July 1533) was the last Inca Emperor. After defeating his brother, Atahualpa became very briefly the last Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) of the Inca Empir ...

, the last ruler of the Inca Empire. To prepare the ship for her lengthy voyage to Peru, around Cape Horn, Swift & Co. added a

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

on the bow, stepped two masts with a fore-and-aft rig, to supplement her engine, and provided closures to make vents and deck openings water tight. While this was going on, the United States was negotiating with Great Britain over compensation for losses inflicted by British ships knowingly sold to the

Confederacy Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

during the Civil War (the Alabama Claims). Peru had been involved in an undeclared war with Spain, (the Chincha Islands War) in 1864–1866, and the US was not willing to prejudice its claims against the United Kingdom, by performing a similar action for a belligerent power. Negotiations over the issue delayed the departure of the two monitors until January 1869, after Peru bought two steamers, ''Reyes'' and ''Marañon'' to tow the monitors. They had only reached Pensacola, Florida, before machinery breakdowns forced them to wait 30 days for repairs to be completed. En route from

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

to the Bahamas, the ships were separated in heavy weather. ''Atahualpa'' reached Great Inagua, in the Bahamas, and was able to resupply, although her officers had to pay for themselves. The ships finally reunited at St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, and had to wait for ''Pachitea'' to arrive from Peru, to tow ''Oneota'', which had been renamed ''Manco Cápac'', as the monitor had accidentally rammed and sunk ''Reyes'' during the storm. While entering Rio de Janeiro, on the night of 15 September, ''Manco Cápac'' ran aground; she was refloated the following day, but the damage required three months to repair. The ships were joined by the steam

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

during this time. They reached the

Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural pass ...

, on 29 January 1870, and

, on 11 May. ''Atahualpa'' was towed from Callao to Iquique, then part of Peru, from 11–22 May 1877, to defend that port from the rebel ironclad during the

Peruvian Civil War Peruvian Civil War may refer to the following: * Peruvian Civil War of 1834 * Peruvian Civil War of 1835–1836 * Peruvian Civil War of 1843–1844 * Peruvian Civil War of 1856–1858 * Peruvian Civil War of 1865 * Peruvian Civil War of 1867 * ...

. When the War of the Pacific with Chile began in 1879, ''Atahualpa'' was stationed in Callao. On 11 December 1880, the Chilean fleet started firing at Callao, at ranges of up to . ''Atahualpa'', escorted by a tug, sortied to fight a long-range battle with the Chilean fleet, but failed to inflict any damage on the Chilean ships. On 16 January 1881, her crew was forced to scuttle the ship to prevent her capture by Chilean forces as they advanced into the city. After the war, the monitor was salvaged and she became a storage hulk until she was finally broken up sometime in the early 20th century.

Notes

References

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External links