USS Intrepid (1874)
USS Intrepid in dry dock, note the torpedo projection device at her forefoot
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Intrepid |
| Builder: | Boston Navy Yard |
| Launched: | 5 March 1874 |
| Commissioned: | 31 July 1874 |
| Decommissioned: | 22 August 1882 |
| Struck: | 9 May 1892 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 9 May 1892 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Torpedo ram |
| Displacement: | 1,150 long tons (1,168 t) |
| Length: | 170 ft 3 in (51.89 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam screw |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Armament: |
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The second USS Intrepid, was a steam-powered torpedo ram commissioned and built in 1874 that had the distinction of being the world's first U.S. Navy ship armed with self-propelled torpedoes. In concept and design she was roughly comparable to the Royal Navy's HMS Polyphemus, although Intrepid was completed more than half a decade earlier. The Intrepid was commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson.
Intrepid, like the other torpedo rams, was a product of the confusion that followed the invention of the self-propelled torpedo, which saw the world's navies struggle to find a way to effectively utilize the earliest torpedo designs. Her keel was laid down at the Boston Navy Yard and she was launched on 5 March 1874, sponsored by Miss H. Evelyn Frothingham Pooke. After construction completed, Intrepid was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 31 July. Her commanding officer was Commander Augustus P. Cooke.
As with most of the earliest torpedo-armed warships, Intrepid was a largely experimental vessel of little true value as an actual fighting ship. After her commissioning ceremony, she departed Boston on 3 August for the naval base at Newport, Rhode Island. Since she was a new and untried design, Intrepid remained in coastal waters for the majority of the voyage, and arrived in Newport the next day. After a little less than a month at Newport she was transferred to New York. Leaving on 31 August, she arrived at the New York Navy Yard on 1 September. The following two months were devoted to torpedo trials along the North Atlantic Coast, which showed that Intrepid's design was generally unsatisfactory. Her final trial cruise ended when she returned to New York Navy Yard on 24 October, and she was decommissioned a week later on 30 October.
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