Kalamazoo-class monitor

The ''Kalamazoo''-class monitors were a class of ocean-going ironclad monitors begun during the American Civil War. Unfinished by the end of the war, their construction was suspended in November 1865 and the unseasoned wood of their hulls rotted while they were still on the building stocks. If the four ships had been finished they would have been the most seaworthy monitors in the US Navy. One was scrapped in 1874 while the other three were disposed of a decade later.

Design and description

John Lenthall, Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, ordered Benjamin F. Delano, naval constructor at New York City, to design a wooden-hulled ironclad that would carry her armament in two gun turrets. The deck was to be above the waterline and protected by of armor. The ship's side armor was to be thick, backed by of wood; it was to cover the entire ship's side, down to a depth three feet below the waterline. It should carry enough coal to steam one week at full power with "sufficient speed to make good use of its ram". Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, called them enlarged versions of the s with greater speed and "adapted to coast service", meaning more seaworthy.Canney, p. 125

The ''Kalamazoo''-class ships were long overall and had a length between perpendiculars of . They had a beam of and a draft of . The ships were designed to displace and were 3,200 tons burthen.Silverstone 1989, p. 9 They were the largest ships to be built in navy shipyards to date.

Their unseasoned wooden hulls were massively reinforced by iron straps as well as iron stanchions to bear the enormous weight of their armor and guns. They retained the typical monitor overhang introduced by John Ericsson, designer of the , where the upper part of the hull was wider than the lower part of the hull. The ''Kalamazoo''s wrought iron side armor consisted of two layers of three-inch plates, backed by 21 inches of wood, six feet in height. The outer layer of armor extended further below the waterline. The three-inch deck armor rested on of wood and was covered in another three inches of wood.

They were powered by two 2-cylinder horizontal direct-acting steam engines, each driving one propellers, using steam generated by eight tubular boilers. The engines were rated at and designed to reach a top speed of . They had a bore of and a stroke of . Two large funnels were positioned between the turrets to handle the combustion gases from the boilers. The ''Kalamazoo''s were intended to carry of coal.

The ships' main armament consisted of four smoothbore, muzzle-loading, Dahlgren guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets. Each gun weighed approximately . They could fire a shell up to a range of at an elevation of +7°. The turrets were protected by 15 inches of armor.

Ships

Construction and fate

Construction of the ships began between late 1863 and early 1864 and they were still being built when the war ended in early 1865. Construction was suspended on all four on 17 November 1865; they remained on the stocks. The ships were renamed, usually twice, in 1869 to conform to several new ship naming conventions. Vice Admiral David D. Porter ordered that ''Colossus'' be rebuilt to carry 10 large broadside guns and fitted with iron masts in a ship rig, but this never happened. The unseasoned wood in their hulls quickly began to rot after construction was suspended and they were broken up beginning in 1874. Unusually, ''Passaconaway'' was condemned by an Act of Congress on 5 August 1882 before she was finally broken up in 1884.

Notes

Footnotes

References

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External links

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry on ''Kalamazoo''


Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry on ''Passaconaway''


Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry on ''Quinsigamond''


Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry on ''Shackamaxon''

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Cancelled ships of the United States Navy
Monitor classes