Ron van Maanen
Ordered to be build as the Protector decided the navy that this name was to ‘sweet’ so on 1 April her contractor John Ericsson suggested Gustavus Fox who was the Assistant Secretary if Navy to name her Dictator and which became her final name. She was laid down at the yard of Delamater Iron Works at New York on 16 August 1862 , launched on 26 December 1863 and she was launched the next year on 11 November. Decommissioned on 5 September 1865 and laid up in ordinary at the League Island Navy Yard was she on 20 July 1869 recommissioned, again decommissioned (28 June 1871) and laid up in ordinary at the New York Navy yard, recommissioned between 12 January 1874 and 1 June 1871 and finally laid up in ordinary at League Island where she was sold on 27 September six years later and was broken up.
With a displacement of 4,438 long tons/4,509 tons were her dimensions 312’x 50’ x20’6” or 95 x 15 x 6,25 metres. The 2 cylinder Ericsson vibrating-lever steam engine supplied 3,500 ihp while driving one screw allowed a speed of 9-10 knots. Her crew numbered 174 men. Armed with 2-15” (instead of the 20” as originally planned) Dahlgren smootbore guns placed in one turret. The armour consisted of a 1.5”thick deck, while the turret was protected by 15”, the pilothouse by 12” and the hull by 6” thick armour.
