Her building at the yard of of William Henry Webb at New York was ordered on 3 July 1862, she was laid down on 4 October using a design of Lenthall but in fact a copy of the CSS Virginia, launched on22 July three years later, never commissioned in the US navy but given back to the shipbuilder in September 1866, in July a year later sold to France where she was commissioned as the Rochambeau after being rebuild and rearmed and already broken up in 1874. France bought this vessel preventing that Prussia could purchase her. She was the longest wooden ship ever built.
Fitted out with a slooping armoured casemate and a ram with a length of 50 feet. In the original design were two turrets projected. With a displacement of 7,060-7,800 (full load) tons or a burden tonnage of 5,090 tons were her dimensions 358’8” (between perpendiculars)-377’4” (over all) x 72’9”x 21’ (115 x 22.2 x 6.52 metres). The two horizontal back-acting engines supplied 4,500 ihp allowing through one screw a speed of 15 knots. The armament consisted of 4-15” smoothbore guns and 2-11”smoothbore guns. The armour consisted of a belt of iron with a thickness of 2½-3½“(6,4-8,9cm) while the casemate was protected by 4½ (11,4cm) with a timber backing thick 3’ (90cm).
Harper’s Weekly dated 14 November 1863 published the illustration of her still in construction.
