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NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive

USS AJAX

Canonicus Class Monitor: Displacement: 1,034 tons. Dimensions: 225 x 43.8 x 13.6 feet. Propulsion: Ericsson VL engines, 2 boilers, 320 hp, 1 shaft, 7 knots. Crew: 85. Armor: Iron: 3-5 inch sides, 1 inch deck, 11 inch turret. Armament: 1 dual turret with 2x15 inch Dahlgren smoothbore.

Operational and Building Data: Originally named Manayunk, built by Snowdon & Mason, South Pittsburgh, PA Contracted 15 September 1862, launched 18 December 1864, completed 27 September 1865. Not commissioned, laid up in reserve immediately upon delivery. Renamed Ajax 15 June 1869. Commissioned 1 January 1871. Operated from Key West briefly. Decommissioned at Philadelphia for repairs 1 July 1871, recommissioned 13 January 1874; decommissioned to reserve 27 July 1875. Recommissioned 5 November 1875 but remained inactive; decommissioned to reserve 30 June 1891. Loaned to the New Jersey Naval Militia 26 September 1895. Returned to the Navy and recommissioned for Spanish American War service 9 July 1898, but decommissioned 1 September 1898, before necessary repairs and overhaul had been completed.
Fate: Sold for scrapping 10 October 1899.

Size	Image Description	Source
91k	*Manayunk, engraving published in "Harper's Weekly",* 3 February 1866 as part of a larger print entitled "The Iron-Clad Navy of the United States.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 2902.
607k	Monitors in ordinary at League Island Navy Yard: *Nahant, Lehigh, Canonicus, Manhattan, Jason* [ex-*Sangamon],Catskill, Montauk, Mahopac* & *Ajax* circa 1890 - 1901, but most likely taken in 1898.	Insert Image and text provided by University of California, Riverside. Photo courtesy of The Herald. (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 22 April 1898, Image 10, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Photo LC-D401-21287 courtesy of loc.gov.
NR	UNCLE SAM'S FLEET OF MONITORS. In case of war with Spain, the monitor fleet would be of great value to Uncle Sam as coast defenders. Monitors are poor seagoing ships, but are very effective in the defense of seaboard cities. First row: *Wyandotte* & *Passaic, second row: Nantucket, Amphitrite* (BM-2) & Miantonomah (BM-5); third row; *Ajax*.	Image and text provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa; Honolulu, HI. Photo by The Hawaiian Gazette. (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 22 April 1898, Image 3, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
677k	OUR NAVY AS IT IS TODAY 1. Monadnock (BM-3) . 2. Petrel. 3. Puritan (BM-1) . 4. Concord. 5. Wilmington. 6. Amphitrite (BM-2) . 7. *Ajax. 8. Machias. 9. Cincinnati. 10. Marblehead. 1 1. Montgomery. 12. Minneapolis. 13. Kearsarge* (BB-5). 14. Kentucky (BB-6). 15. Bancroft. 16. Dolphin. 17. Vesuvius. 18. Raleigh. 19. Indiana (BB-1). 20. Iowa (BB-4). 21. Olympia. 22. Terror (M-4). 23. *Catskill* . 24. Miantonomah (BM-5). 25. Gustine. 26. Yorktown. 27. *Texas. 28. Helena. 29. Massachusetts* (BB-2). 30. Columbia. 31. New Orleans, 32. San Francisco. 33. *Canonicus* . 34. *Camanche* . 35. Monterey (BM-6). 36. Brooklyn. 37. Detroit 38. Atlanta. 39. Alabama (BB-8). 40. Albany. 41. Baltimore. 42. Chicago. 43. Newark, 44. Boston. 45. Charleston. 46. Oregon (BB-3). 47. New York. 48. *Manhattan. 49. Philadelphia. 50. Lehigh*. And Torpedo Boats. Drawn by "W. A. Verhas.	Image and text provided by University of Tennessee. Photo by The Maryville Times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 28 May 1898, Image 3, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
1.05k	THE MONITOR *AJAX* The *Ajax* is one of the old single turreted monitors built during the civil war, but instead of being allowed to stick in the mud with the others of her class, she was used by the naval militia of Camden, N. J. She has been put in commission and her armament of smoothbores supplemented by rapid fire rifles of small caliber.	Image and text provided by Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ. Photo by Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner. (Prescott, Ariz.) 1885-1903, 22 June 1898, Image 1, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
91k	*Ajax* photographed during her Spanish-American War service, 1898.	Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 19-N-19-11-1.
102k	*Ajax* photographed during her Spanish-American War service, 1898. Note anchors and anchor handling gear; also coiled rope fender at the bow.	Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 19-N-19-11-3.
376k	A guest studies a painting depicting the history of battleships. The artwork was painted by George Skybeck and presented to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association during their annual banquet at Honolulu, Hawaii, on 8 December 1991.	USN photo # DN-SC-92-05391, by PHC Carolyn Harris, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.

USS Ajax History
View This Vessels DANFS History Entry

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Not Applicable To This Ship

Additional Resources
Hazegray & Underway Battleship Pages By Andrew Toppan.

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