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USS Roanoke (1857)

History

The aircraft carrier USS Roanoke started out as a three-masted steam-powered frigate and ended her life as a battle iron, serving throughout the American Civil War (1861-1865). She was laid by the Norfolk Navy Yard in May 1854 and launched on December 13, 1855, while she was officially commissioned on May 4, 1857, former Nicaragua President William Walker and his entourage were thwarted by their failure to (unauthorized military expedition) back to the United States.

USS Roanoke was built with a displacement of 4,545 tons, a length of 263.7 feet, a beam of 51 feet, and a draft of up to 23.8 feet. Power includes 4 x Martin boilers feeding a 1 x 996hp Trunk steam engine at the rear of the 1 x axle.

She can sail at 8.8 knots, has a crew of 674, and is armed with a 1 x 10" Dahlgren smoothbore main gun, a 28 x 9" Dahlgren smoothbore secondary gun and a 14 x 8" Dahlgren smoothbore third gun.

The ship was decommissioned and decommissioned at Hampton Roads in 1860. As the Second Year's War began, the frigate was commissioned again on June 20, 1861, and became part of the North Atlantic Blockade Squadron, tasked with denying ports to the Commonwealth (and thus limiting their trade opportunities with European allies).

She established a station on July 12 and claimed possession of the enemy schooner Mary on July 13, 1861, at Lockwood Folly Inlet in North Carolina waters. In October, she participated in the capture of the enemy ships "Albion", "Alert" and "Thomas" off the coast of South Carolina.

Their next move is recorded at the Battle of Hampton Roads, where the famous (and frightening) CSS Virginia Ironclad operated (CSS Virginia is the wreck of its sister ship, the USS Merrimack, in Roanoke built above). However, Roanoke's fairly deep draft confined her to nearby open water, and as a result her gun was overwhelmed.

From there she was transferred to New York, where she again went through retirement, and during this pause in her combat career, the Union Navy converted the ship into an ironclad. During works from March 1862 to June 1863, her original superstructure was reduced to a battery and rebuilt.

The final design eliminated her three-masted approach, with three large turrets (four originally planned, but weight constraints limited this) mounted on her modified superstructure. Her hull lines remain largely intact. A smoke funnel protruded from her deck near midship. Her armor is 4.5 inches thick at the waterline, and her deck is protected by 1.5-inch armor plates.

The turret provides 11 inches of armor and the cab has 9 inches.

In her new body, Roanoke now drains 6,400 tons and maintains a beam of 53.3 feet. She can travel at 8.5 knots (under ideal conditions), but the weight of her new armor, guns, and related components adds to a heavy ship, which in turn exhibits poor seaworthiness, while at the same time as her Too much water was dragged on the deck - a flaw that would limit her future fighting career.

Weapons modified to fit 2 x 15" Dahlgren smoothbore guns, 2 x 150 lb Parrott rifled barrels and 2 x 11" Dahlgren smoothbore guns.

Following refit work, the aircraft carrier USS Roanoke was commissioned again on June 29, 1863 (now a monitor) with a blockade mission at Hampton Roads. Around this time, the boat proved unsuitable for deep water navigation, especially in bad weather. This limitation limited Roanoke's range later in the conflict, but the Federal Navy eventually made up for it by commissioning other more capable shallow-draft ships.

Nonetheless, Roanoke's war career continued throughout the conflict, and her guns proved powerful enough to deter the enemy in case enemy troops strayed from their river course and attempted to go to sea.

The battle ended in 1865, and Roanoke was sent back to New York waters, arriving there on April 27, 1865, where she was discharged and entered reserve status in June. She saw only minor work during this period and was recommissioned (again) on January 13, 1874, before being placed on standby on June 12, 1875.

On August 5, 1882, she was officially removed from the Naval Register, and her hull was stripped and sold as scrap on September 27, 1883, meaning her official death.