USS Roanoke - A Worthwhile Conversion?

Post war photograph of USS Roanoke in ordinary at New York. USS Vermont is likely the ship of the line in the background. Photo via Naval History and Heritage Command.

Question for discussion: Was the conversion of the Steam Frigate USS Roanoke to a turreted ironclad worthwhile?

Originally built as a sister ship to USS Merrimack, USS Roanoke was present at the battle of Hampton Roads but was prevented from joining the action against her erstwhile sister due to grounding.

In the days after the battle, the steam frigate was ordered to the New York Navy Yard for conversion into a turret ironclad. The ship was cut down, and three turrets similar to those of Passaic-class monitors were installed. The ship was given an armored belt with a maximum thickness of 4.5-inches. The work took over a year and the ship would not recommission until June of 1863.

Ordered from New York to Hampton Roads, her Captain Benjamin F. Sands sent a report to Gideon Wells upon arrival which included the observations of the voyage:

"A heavy swell from the south had set in, sufficiently to test her buoyancy, which I found much greater than I had expected, from the immense quantity of iron she carries. Her rolling motion, however, is so great as to preclude the possibility of fighting her guns at sea, and I was obliged to screw them by bracing them with pieces of timber to prevent their "fetching away" in the rolling motion to which the ship is subjected in even the swell we encountered.

We made the trip in less than forty-eight hours, making a speed of from 5 to 6 knots an hour, with form thirty to thirty-five revolutions."

Captain Sands further wrote to Wells, "Though I do not consider the Roanoke adapted to fighting a battle at sea on account of her rolling, rendering her guns unserviceable and exposing her to shot below her iron plating, yet she has proved herself capable of being safely and readily transported from harbor to harbor upon our coast for the defense of any part thereof."

(Official Records - Navies. Series 1. Volume 9. Pp. 119-120).

USS Roanoke undertook a test of her armament on July 14th, 1863. Captain Sands wrote to Acting Rear-Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee:

"Sir: I have to report that in exercising the guns of this vessel to-day, the two XV-inch guns and one rifle 150-pounder were temporarily disabled by their recoil, driving them from their slides, carrying away the rear guides, cutting off several boltheads of the floor plating, and bringing up against their turrets with great force, bending the shield plates inside the turrets, starting one bolt of the surrounding plating, and breaking off the head of another.

I had taken the precaution first to fire blank charges to try the recoil and only using shells with the ordinary charges, when their recoil caused the damage, although the compressors were hove as tight as four men could heave them with levers.

The concussion of the XV-inch discharge in the middle turret fractured the "bull's eyes" in the light room, extinguishing the lights.

With the purchase of jackscrews the guns can be hove upon their slides, but it will take several days to replace the guides and the bolts, all of which can be done by the mechanics here. But when that is done it will be dangerous to the guns to use them with solid shot, if not with shells, without some stronger compression can be delivered.

This is the first time these guns have been fired upon their carriages, and had not been tested before I took command.

Very respectfully, etc. your obedient servant,

B.F. Sands,

Captain, U.S. Navy"

(Official Records - Navies. Series 1. Volume 9. Pg. 125).

According to the logbook entry of USS Roanoke for July 22nd, 1863, the crew "fired a shot from 15-inch gun and a shell for 11-inch gun middle turret to prove repairs to carriages, found them satisfactory." The log of July 23rd, 1863 records that the 150-Pounder Parrott Rifle and 11-Inch Dahlgren in the after turret were test fired. Again, the results seem to have been satisfactory. I've not found in the log reference to the repairs in the forward turret.

According to the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships": "Roanoke was assigned as harbor defense ship at Hampton Roads, Va., a duty she performed through the end of the Civil War. Roanoke was decommissioned on 20 June 1865 at New York Navy Yard. Retained in reserve, Roanoke's only postwar service was as flagship of the Port Admiral at New York. Roanoke was recommissioned on 13 January 1874 and remained in reduced commission until again placed in reserve on 12 June 1875. Struck from the list on 5 August 1882, Roanoke was sold for scrapping on 27 September 1883 at Chester, Pa., to E. Stannard & Co., Westbrook, Conn."

Also according to the DANFS, "An ordnance report, dated 31 August 1863, listed her battery as follows: fore turret 1 15", 1 150-pounder; middle turret 1 15", 1 11"; after turret, 1 11", 1 150-pounder."

The logbook which begins in January of 1874 records the ship's armament at that time of consisting of four 15-Inch Smoothbores, two 11-Inch Smoothbores, twelve 24-Pounder Dahlgren Smoothbore Howitzers, one 12-Pounder Dahlgren Smoothbore Howitzer, and one 12-Pounder Dahlgren Rifled Howitzer.

The 1865 Bureau of Ordnance Report following the busting of 100-Pounder Parrotts during the First Battle of Fort Fisher recommended removing the 150-Pounder Parrotts from service. (100-Pounder and 60-Pounder, and 30-Pounder Parrott Rifles would remain in service.) It is interesting to note that in the 1874 armament, the 150-Pounder Parrotts had been removed and seemingly replaced with 15-Inch Dahlgrens.

By 1880 a report on the Navy made to the US Senate stated "the Roanoke has long since been considered as worthless. She lies in ordinary at New York awaiting sale or destruction, and is growing worse for the delay." She was finally sold for scrapping in 1883.

By contrast, her former sisters, USS Minnesota and USS Wabash seem to have been in good condition. Minnesota was described in the same Senate report as being able to be fitted for sea in a very short time if an emergency called for it. (The combat value of an 1850s steam frigate in the 1880s is questionable... not that any active USN ships of the time were that different. Nearly all were wooden hulled steamers, most only marginally newer.) Minnesota would last until 1901 (finishing her service with the Massachusetts Naval Militia), and Wabash, serving as a receiving ship, was not struck from the navy list until 1912.

Drawing of the Merrimack-Class Steam Frigate USS Roanoke as originally completed. Naval History and Heritage Command Image

Model of USS Roanoke at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Model of USS Roanoke, Hampton Roads Naval Museum

July 22nd and July 23rd, 1863 logbook for USS Roanoke describing the firing of guns in the middle and after turrets following repairs.

January of 1874 Logbook Armament Page showing the ship's armament at that time. Does twelve 24-Pounder howitzers seem to be a large number of that type of weapon to anyone else?