Java-class Frigate (1863)

The ''Java'' class was a series of ten wooden-hulled steam frigates ordered by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction of the ships was significantly delayed with the war's end, and ultimately, only four ships were launched. Of those, only three went to sea and served brief careers due to poor wood quality and a lack of funding. The ships were designed with the ability to attack mechant shipping at sea, which was planned to detur a war with European powers in the post-war era.

Development

Despite the United Kingdom's official stance of neutrality during the American Civil War, British assets were used to support the rebelling Confederacy, particularly in the development of its navy. Shipyards in Liverpool indiscreetly constructed blockade runners and privateers for the Confederates, exploiting a legal loophole by ensuring the vessels were not armed until they reached Portugal. Among these ships were , , and , which wreaked havoc on Union shipping; ''Alabama'' alone was responsible for destroying 65 merchant vessels.

The Union Navy was alarmed by these developments, as the disruption of American trade routes drove up domestic prices, damaged the economy, and forced the reassignment of ships from blockade duties against the South. By 1863, the Union, already provoked by these developments, feared that Britain might intervene to support the Confederates directly - a scenario that would have left the Union Navy hopelessly outmatched by the Royal Navy. Faced with that prospect, the Union Navy began planning for a possible war with the United Kingdom. While the Union fleet could not match the Royal Navy in conventional battles, the plan called for employing tactics similar to those used by the Confederacy: commerce raiding. By using cruisers to launch hit-and-run attacks on British ports and merchant shipping, the Union hoped to make a war too costly for Britain to justify, ultimately forcing it back into neutrality.

For the new role, the Navy developed a breed of warship known as "commerce destroyers" that had the range and speed to intercept enemy ships at sea. Twenty-seven such ships were ordered by Congress in 1863, split into three classes varying in size, speed, and armament. The smallest was the ''Contoocook''-class sloop, largest and fastest was the ''Wampanoag''-class frigate, and the most well armed was the ''Java''-class frigate.

The new ships were built according to a new doctrine of the Navy planned for the post-war era. Congress was only interested in a Navy that could directly protect the United States, not one that could rival the Royal or French Navies. Instead of large, costly, ocean-going ironclads such as USS ''Dunderburg'', the legislator wanted the Navy to only consist of costal ironclads that would protect the shoreline and "commerce destroyers" to operate out at sea and deter aggression from said navies.

Design and development

The class was designed and laid down in the final years of the American Civil War, and incorporated the United States Navy's wartime experience and technological advancements. The design was based on the ''Contoocook''-class, with a larger emphasis on armament at the cost of speed.

While dimensions varied slightly between ships, they typically displaced and measured at the waterline, with an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . Each ship was powered by a single-shaft steam engine driven by four boilers, two of which featurered superheaters. They were capable of speeds between , with a coal capacity of . The class was crewed by 325 officers and enlisted personnel. Aside from their rigging, the ships were also fitted with two funnels.

Armament varied by vessel. ''Guerriere'' and ''Minnetonka'' carried two Parrott rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns, one Parrott RML, 18 Dahlgren smoothbore (SB) guns, and two to four RML boat guns, the difference was that ''Guerriere'' was fitted with only six Dahlgren guns. ''Piscataqua'' was instead armed with twenty 9-inch SB guns.

Armored frigate variant

The last two ships in the class, ''Hassalo'' and ''Watauga'', were planned on being built as armored frigates with a layer of steel armor fitted on the hull and around the gun mounts.The ships had a higher displacement, measuring at burthen compared to of the original design. They were listed as being armed with either 13 or 25 guns of unspecified type. Neither ship was laid down and were later canceled.

History

Following the end of the Civil War, the Navy was stripped of funding, which left many construction projects abandoned. Of the four frigates which managed to enter service, the use of unseasoned (green) wood in their hulls ensured brief careers due to war-time supply shortages of high-quality material and the need to have the ships in service as early as possible. While ''Illinois'', ''Java'', ''Kewaydin'', and ''Ontario'' were broken up at the shipyard after sitting on their stocks for decades, only ''Guerriere'', ''Minnetonka'', and ''Piscataqua'' went to sea, with ''Antietam''s hull used as a storage hulk. After several of the ships were renamed after states, ''California'' (ex-''Minnetonka'') served as the flagship of the US Pacific Fleet while ''Delaware'' (ex-''Piscataqua'') went to the Asiatic and ''Guerriere'' served in the Atlantic. After less than ten years of service, the three operable ships were sold off due to degraded and rotten wood.

Ships in class

Below is a list of every ship of the class along with key information about each one.

References

{{Java-class frigate

Frigate classes
Steam frigates of the United States Navy
Steam frigates
Ships of the Union Navy