USS Roanoke (1855)

USS Roanoke as a steam frigate
History
United States
Name	USS Roanoke
Namesake	Roanoke River
Builder	Norfolk Navy Yard
Laid down	May 1854
Launched	13 December 1855
Commissioned	4 May 1857
Decommissioned	24 September 1857
Recommissioned	18 August 1858
Decommissioned	1860
Recommissioned	20 June 1861
Refit	25 March 1862
Decommissioned	25 March 1863
Recommissioned	29 June 1863 as a monitor
Decommissioned	20 June 1865
Recommissioned	13 January 1874
Decommissioned	12 June 1875
Stricken	5 August 1882
Fate	Sold for scrap, 27 September 1883
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Merrimack-class screw frigate
Displacement	4,472 long tons (4,544 t)
Tons burthen	3,400 bm
Length	263 ft 8 in (80.4 m) (p/p)
Beam	51 ft 4 in (15.6 m)
Draft	23 ft 9 in (7.2 m)
Installed power	996 ihp (743 kW) 4 Martin boilers
Propulsion	1 shaft 1 Trunk steam engine
Sail plan	Ship rig
Speed	8.8 knots (16.3 km/h; 10.1 mph)
Complement	674
Armament	1 × 10 in (254 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren gun 28 × 9 in (229 mm) Dahlgren guns 14 × 8 in (203 mm) Dahlgren guns
General characteristics (after reconstruction)
Type	Monitor
Displacement	6,300 long tons (6,400 t)
Beam	53 ft 3 in (16.2 m)
Speed	8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph)
Complement	347
Armament	2 × 15 in (381 mm) Dahlgren guns 2 × 150-pounder Parrott rifle 2 × 11 in (279 mm) Dahlgren guns
Armor	Waterline belt: 3.5–4.5 in (89–114 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Gun turrets: 11 in (279 mm) Pilothouses: 9 in (229 mm)

USS Roanoke was a wooden-hulled Merrimack-class screw frigate built for the United States Navy in the mid-1850s. She served as flagship of the Home Squadron in the late 1850s and captured several Confederate ships after the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The ship was converted into an ironclad monitor during 1862–63; the first ship with more than two gun turrets in history. Her conversion was not very successful as she rolled excessively, and the weight of her armor and turrets strained her hull. Her deep draft meant that she could not operate off shallow Confederate ports and she was relegated to harbor defense at Hampton Roads, Virginia for the duration of the war. Roanoke was placed in reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1883.