The Powder Monkey of USS New Hampshire

"Powder Monkey" aboard USS New Hampshire at Port Royal, South Carolina. Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666850/

USS New Hampshire relieved USS Vermont as the storeship at Port Royal, South Carolina on July 30th, 1864. (The two ships actually share a common logbook - July 29th is Vermont, July 30th New Hampshire.) Originally built as a Ship of the Line to be named USS Alabama, the ship was ready for launching by 1825, but she was kept on the stocks as a mobilization asset until needed. When she was finally launched in 1864, the best use for her massive wooden hull was as a storeship. Even for this non-combat role, she was outfitted with a battery of six 9-Inch Dahlgrens and four 100-Pounder Parrott Rifles, all mounted on her spar deck.

One of these Parrott Rifles, the aft most one on the starboard side, is the cannon against which a teenage boy (identified as a "powder monkey" in the caption) leans in one of the most reproduced photographs of the US Navy in the Civil War. (The boy is identified as Aspinwall Fuller on several websites, though I've not been able to find the original citation. For example see this page on the The United States Navy Memorial website: https://navylog.navymemorial.org/fuller-aspinwall

As can be seen in the photos of this post, there were at least three other photos taken of sailors posing against this same cannon. All four photos are taken at slightly different angles and show interesting details including the firing lock, Marsilly carriage, and elevating screw. Cutlasses are mounted on the bulkhead of the roundhouse behind (though covered with a tarpaulin in one photo). The mizzen shrouds and a boat are in the background as well. On the cannon itself, the marking "RPP" is visible on the top of the band near the lock. Unfortunately the USN Registry number is just out of view.

While it is unlikely that USS New Hampshire would have needed her relatively heavy armament while anchored at Port Royal, when she made her initial transit from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Port Royal in the summer of 1864, it was still possible to run into a Confederate cruiser at sea.

USS New Hampshire remained at Port Royal until 1866 when she sailed (using her own sails according to her logbook) to Hampton Roads. She returned to Port Royal again in 1876 (again under her own sail according to her logs) where she was still stationed according to an 1880 US Senate report on the state of the Navy. She was moved to Norfolk in 1881 and to New London in 1891. She finally decommissioned in 1892, but she began a new life as a ship of the New York Naval Militia in 1893. In this role she would train sailors for both the Spanish American War and World War I. She caught fire and sank in 1921 and was finally disposed of in 1922. At that time she was the last surviving US Navy Ship of the Line.

Note: While the Library of Congress photo citations say that the photographs were taken near Charleston, my quick scan of her log books show the ship at Port Royal, South Carolina during this entire period.

Deck of USS New Hampshire while at Port Royal, South Carolina. Photo is taken near the forecastle looking aft along the starboard side. Note that sails are not bent upon the yards. Also note the Parrott rifles are apparently at the fore and aft ends of the spar deck with three 9-Inch Dahlgrens on each side. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667402/

Photos: Sailor aboard USS New Hampshire at Port Royal, South Carolina https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667400/

Commander William Reynolds, USN, in a photo taken aboard USS New Hampshire in 1864. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Photo of an African American Sailor aboard USS New Hampshire. He is standing next to a neighboring cannon, a 9-Inch Dahlgren. Photo from the USAMHI via the NPS. Seen here: https://npshistory.com/publications/civil_war_series/2/sec4.htm

This painting of the launch of the ship of the line USS Washington at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine shows what the launch of USS New Hampshire likely looked like. USS Alabama / New Hampshire had been kept on the stocks for decades in case she was needed. Painting attributed to John Samuel Blunt (1798–1835). Via Wikimedia.

Model of USS Delaware, sister ship of USS New Hampshire, displayed at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. The photos of the sailors with the Parrot Rifle would have been taken on the spar deck near the mizzen mast (a portion of the deck that may have also been called the quarterdeck). Model by P.C. Coker.

USS New Hampshire as a training ship at Coasters Harbor postwar. Note the large deckhouse amidships: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016807995/

The log of USS Vermont and USS New Hampshire at the time of the relief in July 1864. National Archives.