USS Guerriere (1865)
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.jpg) Guerriere at an unknown location and date | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Guerriere |
| Ordered | 1863 |
| Builder | Boston Navy Yard |
| Laid down | 1864 |
| Launched | 9 September 1865 |
| Commissioned | 21 May 1867 |
| Decommissioned | 22 March 1872 |
| Fate | Sold, 12 December 1872 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Java-class frigate |
| Length | 319 ft 3 in (97.31 m) |
| Beam | 46 ft (14 m) |
| Draft | 17 ft 11 in (5.46 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement | 181 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USS Guerriere was a Java-class sloop of the United States Navy. She was laid down during the American Civil War to deter British intervention in 1864, although timber shortages and a rushed construction delayed progress. She was commissioned in 1867 and served as the of the South Atlantic Squadron for the next two years. Between 1870 and 1872, the sloop operated with the Mediterranean Squadron. Following her return to the United States, she was decommissioned and sold later that year.
During the American Civil War, the Confederate States used British-built privateers to hamper Union trade instead of directly challenging the Union Navy. One such privateer, CSS Alabama, was responsible for destroying 65 merchant vessels.[1][2] The disruption of Union trade routes drove up domestic prices, damaged the economy, and forced the reassignment of ships from blockade duties against the South. The United States feared that the United Kingdom would directly intervene to support the Confederacy—a scenario that would have left the Union Navy outmatched by the Royal Navy. In response, the Union Navy began planning for a possible war. While the American fleet could not match the British in conventional battles, the plan called for employing tactics similar to those used by the Confederacy: commerce raiding. By using cruisers to launch hit-and-run attacks on British ports and merchant shipping, the Union hoped to make a war too costly for Britain to justify, ultimately forcing it back into neutrality.[3][4]
For the new role, the Navy developed "commerce destroyers" that had the range and speed to intercept enemy ships at sea. Twenty-seven such ships were ordered by Congress in 1863, split into three classes varying in size, speed, and armament. The most well armed of these designs became known as the Java-class sloop.[5][6] By 1864, the new ships were built according to a new doctrine of the Navy for the post-war era. Congress was only interested in a navy that could directly protect the United States, not one that could rival the Royal or French Navies. Instead of large, costly, ocean-going ironclads such as USS Dunderburg, the legislators wanted the Navy to only consist of coastal ironclads that would protect the shoreline and commerce destroyers to operate out at sea and deter aggression from foreign nations.[7][8]
Design
The Java or Guerriere-class were envisioned as large screw-sloops with spar decks.[9] The design featured an overall length of 336 feet 6 inches (102.57 m), length between perpendiculars of 312 feet 6 inches (95.25 m), beam of 46 feet (14 m), draft of 21 feet 5 inches (6.53 m), displacement of 3,954 short tons (3,530 long tons), and a complement of 325.[10] Piscataqua was equipped with four main boilers and two superheating boilers, which provided steam to two horizontal back action steam 36 in (91 cm) stroke engines that turned one propeller powered by 540 short tons (480 long tons) of coal. The ships had two funnels and wooden hulls reinforced by iron braces.[11] Ships of the class were fully rigged and carried 23,820 square feet (2,213 m2) of sail, excluding top sails, on three masts.[12] Under steam and sail, Piscataqua reached speeds up to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).[13] Armament consisted of either sixteen or eighteen 9 in (23 cm) Dahlgren guns and two 100 lb (45 kg) Parrott rifles on the gun deck to form the broadside while a 60 lb (27 kg) rifle was mounted on the spar deck.[12]