This ironclad famous for her battle with the USS Monitor was a rebuilding of the at the Gosport Navy yard scuttled USS steam frigate Merrimack which ship was salvaged between 18 and 30 May 1861and cut town to the lower hull and using her engines. On 11 July the secretary of the Confederate Navy Stephen Mallory decided to rebuild her while using sketches of the two lieutenants John Mercer Brooke (18 December 1826014 December 1906) and John Luke Porter (1813-14 December 1893). The ironclad was commissioned on 17 February a year later although she was not earlier completed on the 7thof the next month and already two days was the famous battle with the USS Monitor. Her own crew set fire into her to prevent capture by the Union forces and on 11 May while off Craney Island her powder magazine exploded and she was destroyed.
John M. Brooke. Naval Historical Center, photo NH58902, halftone reproduction of a photographic portrait made by William Maury Morris
John L. Porter. Photo Naval Historical Center.
With a displacement of around 4,000 long tons/4,100 tons were her dimensions 275’ x 51’2” x 21’ or 83,8 x 15,6 x 6,4 metres. The 2 horizontal back-acting steam engines and 4 boilers supplied 1,200 ihp allowing a speed of between the 5 and 6 knots. The crew numbered around the 320 men. The armour consisted of 1-3” thick belt, a 1” thick deck while the casemate was protected by 4”. Her armament consisted of 207” Brooke rifles, 2-6’4” Brooke rifles, 6-9” Dahlgren smoothbore guns and finally 2-12pdr howitzers.
