USS Keokuk (1862)
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Keokuk |
| Namesake: | City of Keokuk |
| Ordered: | March 1862 |
| Builder: | Charles W. Whitney, New York City |
| Laid down: | 1862 |
| Launched: | December 6, 1862 |
| Commissioned: | March 1863 |
| Fate: | Sunk, April 8, 1863 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Casemate ironclad |
| Displacement: | 677 long tons (688 t) |
| Length: | 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) |
| Propulsion: | Two 250 hp two-cylinder steam engines, 2 screws of 7-foot, 6-inch diameter |
| Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement: | 92 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | Alternating horizontal 1 in x 4 in iron bars and yellow pine slats, sheathed with layers of 1/2 in iron plates with a total hull thickness of 5.75 in (146 mm) |
USS Keokuk was an experimental ironclad screw steamer of the United States Navy named for the city of Keokuk, Iowa. She was laid down in New York City by designer Charles W. Whitney at J.S. Underhill Shipbuilders, at the head of 11th Street. She was originally named Moodna (sometimes incorrectly spelled "Woodna"), but was renamed while under construction, launched in December 1862 sponsored by Mrs. C. W. Whitney, wife of the builder, and commissioned in early March 1863 with Commander Alexander C. Rhind in command.
Keokuk was one of the first warships to be of completely iron construction, with wood used only for deck planks and filler in the armor cladding. Her hull construction consisted of five iron box keelsons and one hundred 1-inch-thick (some sources report the thickness as 3/4 inch) by 4-inch-deep iron frames spaced 18 inches between centers. The frames included integral iron cross beams for the decks, with no transverse wood timbers as used on the Monitor. Her bow and stern sections were flooding spaces to allow raising and lowering her waterline.
Her two stationary, conical gun towers, each pierced with three gun ports, housed one 11-inch Dahlgren shell gun each on a shortened and rounded rotating wooden slide carriage (the tower shape often causing her to be mistaken for a double-turreted monitor). Her tower and casemate armor was made up from 1-inch-thick by 4-inch-deep horizontal iron bars alternating with planks of yellow pine of the same dimensions, sheathed with layers of overlapping, flush-bolted 1⁄2-inch rolled iron plates. A total thickness of this composite armor, including the hull skin proper, was 5.75 inches (146 mm). The deck was made of 5-inch wood planks overlaid with 1⁄2-inch-thick iron plate. She had two twin-cylinder main propulsion engines, each 250 hp. In total, Keokuk had nine steam engines providing power to various systems.
The new ironclad departed New York on March 11, 1863 and steamed south to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the attack on Charleston, South Carolina, and arrived at Newport News, Virginia, two days later. She got underway again on March 17 but returned to Hampton Roads for repairs when her port propeller became fouled in a buoy anchor line. She stood out of Hampton Roads again on March 22 and arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina on March 26."...The iron clad battery Keokuk steamed by me yesterday and I have heard that she was bound to Charleston S.C. It was a curious looking affair I assure you it had two turrets with two guns [sic] in each. It looked a little like this [reasonably accurate sketch in letter] but of course I am not an artist..."
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Wikipedia