USS Nahant (1862)
USS Nahant
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Nahant |
| Builder: | Harrison Loring |
| Launched: | October 7, 1862 |
| Commissioned: | December 29, 1862 |
| Decommissioned: | 1898 |
| Renamed: |
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| Fate: | sold, April 6, 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Passaic-class ironclad monitor |
| Displacement: | 1,875 long tons (1,905 t) |
| Length: | 200 ft (61 m) o/a |
| Beam: | 46 ft (14 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Installed power: | 320 ihp (240 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 5 kn (5.8 mph; 9.3 km/h) |
| Complement: | 75 officers and men |
| Armament: | 1 × 15 in (380 mm) smoothbore, 1 × 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren gun |
| Armor: | |
| Notes: | Armor is iron. |
The first USS Nahant was a Passaic-class ironclad monitor of the United States Navy that saw service in the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War.
Nahant was launched on October 7, 1862, by Harrison Loring, South Boston, Massachusetts, and commissioned on December 29, 1862, Commander John Downes in command.
Life aboard the Nahant during the Civil War was documented in a book titled "A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter" by Alvah F Hunter. In 1862 Hunter enlisted in the Union Navy, with difficulty as he was only 16. He served for a year on the Nahant as a cabin boy, keeping a careful diary. Later in life he wrote the book, which stands as one of the few detailed accounts of wartime routine on a monitor.
The new single-turreted monitor joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Port Royal Harbor, South Carolina on February 20, 1863, and saw her first action in the Union bombardment of Fort McAllister on March 3.
A little over a month later, she participated in Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont's valiant but ill-fated attack on Charleston Harbor. The ironclads crossed Stono Bar and entered Charleston Harbor on 6 April, but a heavy fog stopped their advance lest they run aground attempting to negotiate the tricky channels leading to the vital Confederate port. Though dawn broke clear the next morning, an ebb tide kept the warships from getting underway until noon. Shortly after 15:00, Weehawken's guns opened on Fort Sumter, and through the afternoon Du Pont's ships stubbornly hammered at Confederate batteries while withstanding the intense and accurate converging fire of the Southern cannon.
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