Built as a wooden screw frigate by the New York Navy Yard, New York for the US Navy.
03 August 1863 laid down.
15 December 1864 launched as USS WAMPANOAG sponsored by Miss Case, daughter of Capt. Augustus Ludlow Case, second-in-command of the Navy yard, one of the Wampanoag class, a class of five ships. The WAMPANOAG was named after an Indian tripe living in Massachusetts’s and Rhode Island, the name means “Easterners”
Displacement 4.215 ton, dim. 108 x 13.8 x 5.54m. (draught)
Powered by steam engine, 4.100 ihp., one screw , speed 18 knots. Four funnels.
Bunker capacity 700 ton coal.
Armament: 10 – 8 inch, 2 – 100pdrs., 2 – 24 pdrs. Howitzers, 2 – 12pdrs. Howitzers, 1 – 60 Parrot.r. pivt.
Crew 330.
Barque rigged.
07 February 1868 trials
17 September 1867 commissioned under command of Capt. J.W.A. Nicholson.
Commerce raiding by CSS ALABAMA and CSS FLORIDA both built in English yards, reached a point in 1863 where continued peaceful relations between the United States and Great Britain were seriously jeopardized. As a result, Congress responded by authorizing construction of a new class of screw frigates as part of the naval procurement bill of that year. This class were designed to be the fastest in the world, and were intended for use in hit-and-run operations against British ports and commerce in the event of war.
WAMPANOAG contained numerous design features unprecedented in American naval construction; her hull designed by clipper ship architect B.F. Delano was unusually long and tapered relative to the vessel’s beam. Her machinery, developed by controversial naval engineer B. F. Isherwood, was unique for its geared steam engine in which slow-moving machinery coupled to fast-moving propulsion gear. Tremendous debate caused by this design completed in time to serve in the Civil War.
She finally sailed from New York for sea trials on 07 February 1868. On 11 February, she commenced speed tests running flat-out in rough weather from Barnegat Light, N.J. to Tybee Island, Georgia.
She covered the distance of 633 sea-miles in 38 hours for an average sustained speed of 16.6 knots, at one point making 17.75 knots.
Another naval vessel the American cruiser CHARLESTON, did not equal this record for 21 years.
From 22 February till 08 April 1868, WAMPANOAG was deployed as flagship of the North Atlantic Fleet.
05 May 1868 decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard.
The controversy generated by the frigate’s unconventional design reached a peak in 1869 when a naval commission examined and condemned the vessel. Rear Admiral R.M. Goldsborough, Commodore Charles S Boggs and Engineers E.D. Roble, John W Moore and Isaac Newton judged the ship unacceptable for active duty in the Navy.
They complained of her unusually large machinery spaces counted for nearly 30% of the displacement, heavy coal consumption, and little space for crew and stores, and found particular fault with her narrow breadth relative to her length. The commission said this caused inordinate rolling and straining of the vessel. As a result she was put in ordinary.
15 May 1869 renamed in USS FLORIDA, in ordinary at New York.
06 March 1874 sailed from New York bound for New London Conn. To become a receiving and store ship at the naval station there till February 1885 slowly rotting away.
27 February 1886 sold at New York to Edwin LeBars for dismantling.
Marshall Islands 1997 20c sg 897, scott 649i.
Source: Conway All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860 – 1905. mostly copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Florida_%281869%29