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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

Iowa
ex
 Ammonoosuc (1864 - 1869)

Ammonoosuc Class Screw Frigate:
  • Laid down in the first half of 1863, at Boston Navy Yard
  • Launched, 21 July 1864
  • Towed to New York to have engines installed
  • Completed in the spring of 1868, CDR. William D. Whiting, in command
  • Departed New York, 15 June 1868 for a run to Boston at full speed, Dense fog over much of her course prevented her from proceeding at top velocity during most of the passage, but during one three-hour period she averaged 17.11 knots while moving from Cape Cod to Fort Warren, the highest sustained speed ever attained by a ship up to that time.
  • Laid up at Boston Navy Yard in 1868
  • Renamed Iowa, 15 May 1869
  • Struck from the Naval Register and sold, 27 September 1883 to Hubel and Porter, Syracuse, N.Y.
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 3,859 t.
    Length 335'
    Beam 44' 4"
    Draft 10' 6"
    Speed 17.11 kts
    Complement 251
    Armament
    ten 9" smooth bores
    three 60-pdr
    two 24-pdr
    Propulsion sail and steam engines built by Morgan Iron Works, New York
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
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    Wabash 88k Colored lithograph, after a drawing by Captain Melancthon B. Woolsey, USN, published by the Major & Knapp Eng. Mfg. & Lith. Co., 71 Broadway, New York, circa the later 1860s. It depicts the fast cruisers Ammonoosuc (1868-1883) and Neshaminy (1865-1874). The same print has also been used to depict the never-launched Connecticut ex-Pompanoosuc. The original print's mount bears the notation: "From Boynton's History of the U.S. Navy".
    US Navy photo # NH 57271-KN (Color) from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command    		 US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Wabash 61k Boston Navy Yard, waterfront, as seen from East Boston, circa 1876. Ships at left are USS Wabash, outboard, with USS Niagara housed over inboard of her. Iowa (ex-Ammonoosuc) is inboard of Niagara with only her four smokestacks and stern visible. The large ships on the building ways in the center and extreme right are Connecticut (ex-Pompanoosuc) and Pennsylvania (ex-Keywadin.
    US Navy photo # NH 42470 from the US Naval History and Heritage Command, courtesy of National Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Ammonoosuc / USS Iowa
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 4 March 2011